'No weapons involved' in incident outside Higham Ferrers school, say police

Authorities have allayed fears that a security alert outside a Higham Ferrers school at home time on Wednesday (January, 18) involved weapons.

An argument between members of the community led to Northants Police being sent to the scene after a suggestion that people with weapons were outside The Ferrers School in Queensway.

The school has since criticised ‘inaccurate and misleading’ reports by other media outlets.

Parents were sent a message on Wednesday evening to reassure them.

The email said: “A community issue that has been brought into school escalated towards the end of the day and is now a police matter. The school will be following our behaviour policy for all those involved in school.

“I wish to reassure you that this is an exceptional and unexpected behaviour that we do not condone and will not tolerate on our site.

“Should your son or daughter have any concerns, please ask them to report to their house office for support. Should you have any information relating to this matter or concerns out of school hours, please report this directly to the police.”

A spokesman for The Ferrers School told this newspaper: “We are aware of a community disagreement that took place near to the school at the end of a school day. The school’s staff quickly dealt with the situation and the matter is being resolved in line with our behaviour policy, and has been referred to the police.

“Despite inaccurate and misleading information being reported, there was never any concern that weapons were involved in the incident.”

A spokesman for Northants Police said: “We did have an incident reported to us at about 3.40pm on Wednesday, January, 18, regarding the suggestion there may be people with weapons outside the school in Queensway, Higham Ferrers. However when we turned up, no one was there.

"It seemed to relate to a dispute between two students at the school but no weapons were actually seen.”

The school community is sensitive to such reports because, in 1988, a 16-year-old pupil, who had been expelled, returned with a gun and shot and wounded the deputy headmaster at the end of the school day.

The teacher was shot in the head and four pupils suffered minor injuries from flying glass when a window was shattered.