Fewer than half of London’s secondary schools and FE colleges have taken up an offer of a free knife-detecting “wand” from the Mayor of London, Tes can reveal.
The news comes today as calls were made to treat knife crime “as an emergency,” from Sara Thornton, chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, who was among police chiefs meeting with home secretary Sajid Javid “to stop young people dying on our streets.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan launched the knife-wands initiative more than 18 months ago in response to what he called an “epidemic” of knife crime, which has since continued to rise across England and Wales, according to Home Office figures.
Read: Former Met chief says exclusions are contributing to rise in knife crime
Expert opinion: Schools must not be blamed for knife crime
Free: PSHE resources for teaching knife crime
Deaths in London caused by stabbing include that of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney, who was attacked in a park in Romford last Friday, and of 14-year-old Jaden Moodie, who was stabbed at least eight times in what police called a “frenzied attack,” in Leyton, on January 8.
Tes learned today that 250 of the 498 secondary schools and 63 FE colleges in London have taken up the offer of a free metal-detecting wand.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, praised the initiative as “excellent” but said not all schools would feel it necessary to have a knife wand.
“I am sure that everybody will be looking closely at their procedures in light of the rising incidence of knife crime and deciding on the appropriate response,” he said.
“All schools will have in place security measures and protocols to ensure the safety of students and staff which are proportionate and appropriate.
“But it [the initiative] will obviously not be something which every school feels is necessary to deploy in their context.
“It is very sad indeed that so many schools find they are having to use knife wands and a symptom of a wider problem in society which the government needs to get to grips with, not least by reversing its massive cuts to the police service.”
Gerry Robinson, headteacher of Woodside High School in Wood Green, North London, where a 19-year-old man died last week after being stabbed in a hair salon, said her school hadn’t taken up the offer.
She said: “We don’t feel that we have an issue with knives in school - the issue is outside of school - in the local area.”
The latest figures show 100 more schools and colleges have taken up the offer of free knife wands since Tes ran a story on the initiative last April.
As reported by Tes, one London council is studying potential links between knife crime and school exclusions.
