Children as young as four bringing knives and other weapons to school

Cases of children caught with and other weapons in have nearly doubled in two years – with some aged just four.

In the 2022/23 school year, 686 armed and dangerous youngsters were expelled and 14,289 suspended. That compared to 7,763 sent home in disgrace in 2020/21.

With around 190 days in a school year, it means around 79 children were caught every day. The number permanently expelled soared by more than a quarter in the same period. Shockingly, 1,433 cases involved primary pupils – including 21 aged four and five.

Weapons confiscated included kitchen knives, scissors, penknives and even Tasers. Last night campaigners called for urgent action to stem the tide of violence in our classrooms, amid fears of yet another tragedy.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of teachers union NASUWT, branded our findings “extremely worrying”. He added: “Teachers and head teachers are working hard to ensure that our schools are safe but the epidemic of weapon carrying cannot be solved by schools alone.

“We now need to see the return to a national school safety and security plan which was abandoned by the previous government. The NASUWT is continuing to press the government to come forward with a nationwide plan to ensure safety in our schools.”

Our figures, obtained from the Department for Education under freedom of information laws, come days after a 13-year-old girl stood trial for stabbing two teachers and a pupil at a school in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, in April. The girl, who has admitted grievous bodily harm with intent, will be retried for attempted murder in January after a jury was discharged.

Next month a teenager is due to go on trial accused of murdering Elianne Andam, 15, with a zombie knife on her way to school in Croydon, South London, in September last year. Two months after her death, Alfie Lewis, 15, was stabbed through the heart outside a school in Leeds. His murderer, also 15, got life in June.

Police in England and Wales recorded 50,973 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year to June. Some 255 people – over a third under 25 and 10 under 16 – died.

In 1995, a thug stabbed headmaster Philip Lawrence to death as he protected a pupil outside the school gates in Maida Vale, West London. And teacher Ann Maguire was knifed to death by 15-year-old pupil Will Cornick at her school in Leeds in 2016.

A government spokesperson said: “These figures show the scale of the challenge this government has inherited on tackling crime and school suspensions. Alongside our commitment to halve knife crime over the next decade, we will tackle the root causes of poor behaviour, including by investing over £50million to fund specialist support in schools in the areas where violence most impacts children.”