Thursday 19 March 2009

 

Dear Parents and Carers

 

I would like to take the opportunity to inform you of the events of this week.

 

We were not allowed to give any information in written form on the day of the event but published an ‘Important Message for Parents’ on our website yesterday. In that message I said that we would update you with any further details. I am now in a position to be able to do that.

 

On Tuesday morning, we received an anonymous call suggesting that one of our students may be planning to do damage to the school. We immediately passed that message to the police. When the student arrived at school, because of our security, he was not allowed to go further than student reception. Senior staff isolated him and kept his bags separate and we waited for the police.

 

When the police arrived he was arrested and taken off site. The police then asked us to do a search of students’ possessions. This was carried out by teachers and coordinated by senior staff. Students were asked to place the contents of their pockets and bags on desks for examination. We found nothing of concern.

 

At the end of lunchtime we had a fire drill. I read out the following statement to the whole school:

 

“In period 4 today we conducted a search throughout the school of students’ bags. We apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused. This was a precautionary measure designed to ensure the health and safety of all of our students. Nothing was found that would cause concern to us and we will not need to take any further action.

 

The school did this on the advice of the police who were acting on information that they had received from outside concerning potential damage to our school. They may remain on site during the day to conclude their investigations but they will not be in classrooms.

 

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.”

 

I had intended to post this information immediately on our student VLE and our parent portal. However, I was instructed by the Local Authority not to do this.

 

I hope you can appreciate that when an incident like this becomes an active police investigation we are limited in what we can say – as we don’t want to prejudice any case that may eventually be brought.

 

The information that was in the media on Tuesday and Wednesday morning was placed in the public arena by Norfolk Constabulary.

 

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday I was anxious to inform parents of events, but was advised directly by the Local Authority that as the student remained in police custody, and had not been charged, I was limited in how specific I could be. I agreed an appropriate statement to use on our website however, and it is only now that the student has been detained under the mental health act that I have been able to write to you directly with further details.

 

The Local Authority has been very helpful throughout this difficult time and I was in direct contact with them throughout both Tuesday and Wednesday. One advisor was on site yesterday.

 

Yesterday there was a media presence outside the school late morning and early afternoon. They were not allowed on site but were perfectly entitled to film from outside the site. Some of our Sixth Formers said that they had tried to get them to give them statements on camera and so we went around all Sixth Form lessons and explained this and asked them for their cooperation. I advised them not to make any statement. We also asked prefects to remain on site at lunchtime. Students who had dinner passes were allowed home as normal but asked to leave via the back gates

 

In cases like this which involve the police we are constrained by the guidance that we are given. We have been told by the local authority that we handled the incident well and that there was nothing in addition that we could have done.

 

Our priority throughout the last two days has been to achieve calm and focused environment in school where students felt safe. Conducting our business as usual was the best way to achieve this. When you are working with almost 1000 students, they need to see that their patterns are not changed or disturbed and we worked hard to achieve this. Any decisions that we made had this as an absolute priority.

 

I would like to thank all of the staff and students of Attleborough High School for the calm and professional manner in which this has been dealt with and I apologise to parents who had to be informed of the details of these events in the media. Unfortunately the school had its hands tied in responding to you sooner.

 

Yours sincerely