Nick Blackburn, chief executive of the Lingfield Education Trust, said: “Leah was a much-loved part of our school and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and the school staff.

“We are all in a state of shock and we would ask that the privacy of the family and the school community is respected while we try to come to terms with what has happened.”

The education boss described the mudslide as a “freak event” and claimed the woodland walk was risk assessed by trained instructors.

Mr Blackburn said: “Yes, there were weather warnings.

“They were on their way back from the woods having made shelters when the mudslide happened.

“What’s important for us as a trust is sharing condolences with the family, looking after school staff who were on the trip and pupils and the wider school community.”

He continued: “This has been a freak event. This isn’t a group of kids just walking off into the moors somewhere.

“The walk is risk assessed at the time. They are with trained instructors. They wouldn’t look out the window and say ‘let’s go out there’ if it’s torrential.

“It’s a designated route. It is a planned event and a risk assessed event. We don’t take our children knowingly into unsafe territory.

“Any school outdoor activity is risk assessed in advance of the event and dynamically on the day of the event.”

The chief executive added that pupils and staff at Mount Pleasant Primary School were “stunned, shocked and devastated” following the disaster.

“I’ve been meeting parents on the playground this morning. There are a lot of very upset families and children coming into school.

“We’re just trying to make sense of what’s happened. The activity that Leah was involved in was a walk on a normal path to a woodland area.

Hartlepool Council, the site operators of the guided walk, have confirmed that activities had been suspended after the mudslide tragedy.

Denise McGuckin, Managing Director of Hartlepool Borough Council, which operates Carlton Adventure, confirmed that Leah had been on an instructor-led walk at the time of the incident.

Ms McGuckin said: “We can confirm that a tragic incident occurred during one of the Centre’s instructor-led outdoor education forest walks near to Carlton-in-Cleveland yesterday.

“We are utterly devastated and heartbroken and our thoughts are with Leah’s family and friends and all those affected.

“We are working closely with our partner agencies to carry out a full investigation and we are temporarily suspending all outdoor activities and residential breaks managed by the Council.

“Whilst the investigation is being carried out it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”