Will we see more security at schools after the Brent double stabbing?
The debate over increased security around schools has resurfaced this week after two pupils were stabbed at a school in Brent.
Two boys, aged 12 and 13, were seriously injured when they were stabbed during lunch at Kingsbury High School in north-west London on Tuesday.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and Counter Terrorism Police said he remained in custody this afternoon.
But the headteachers’ union said improving security around schools would need additional funding and staff.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) added that problems in society mean educational environments face higher levels of threat than in the past.
ASCL general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “We are shocked and saddened by this terrible incident and our thoughts are with everyone affected.
“Schools are, for the most part, safe places and go to great lengths to protect their pupils and staff, including lockdown procedures, educating pupils about the dangers of knife crime, site security and weapons searches. “But they are not fortresses, they are part of the wider community and teachers are teachers, not security personnel.
Education Minister Georgia Gould said: Sky News He said the government may consider increasing security in schools following the stabbing, but has ruled out installing metal detectors.
“Everyone in the education community is fully aware that there are significant issues in the wider society that mean the threat level is higher than it has been in the past,” Mr. Di’Iasio said.
“As we have seen from a number of recent incidents, no setting is immune from these risks and school leaders will welcome the opportunity to work with other partners such as government, police and local authorities to contribute to a strategic response to this issue.
“Schools have extremely limited resources and further improving security around school grounds will require additional investment and staffing.”
There have been numerous stabbings in secondary schools across the country in the last few years.
Harvey Willgoose, 15, was stabbed to death by fellow student Mohammed Umar Khan during his lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School in February 2025.
A 13-year-old girl was found guilty of three attempted murder charges last year after attacking two teachers and a student at her school in Ammanford in 2024.
And in 2023, two teenagers, Jakele Pusey and Jovani Harriott, were sentenced to life probation after being found guilty of stabbing 15-year-old Khayri Mclean to death outside her school in Huddersfield in 2022.
A BBC investigation last year found 1,304 crimes involving knives or sharp objects would be recorded in schools and sixth-form colleges in England and Wales by 2024.
Guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) states that it is important for schools to have policies in place to manage and respond to safety-related incidents.
Potential preventive measures for crime on school grounds, including pupils bringing knives, could include CCTV or access systems that allow schools to “control, monitor and deny access where necessary”, according to DfE guidance.
Preventive measures that schools can take may include systems that detect intruders, such as alarm systems, strong perimeter fencing, and security lighting.
The Home Office’s advice to schools states that it is unclear whether routinely searching students for weapons as they enter school has an impact on levels of violence. But he adds that knife belts may have a role to play in creating a safer school environment.
Research commissioned by the DfE last year found that schools often view knife crime as part of a wider system of safeguarding concerns, and that school leaders generally feel that safety issues are increasing in schools and that they are not equipped to tackle the problem. Some staff involved in the investigation felt concerns that incidents of on-site knife crime were increasing.
Research has found that funding constraints and limited staff sometimes meant that schools were not able to offer all the knife crime prevention activities they wanted, and so they had to make decisions about which prevention to focus on based on how they perceived the level of risk in the school.
