Young children taking knives to school, BBC finds

A BBC investigation has revealed instances of very young children taking knives into primary schools. An assault involving a four-year-old student was recorded in Kent, while West Midlands police announced that a six-year-old had brought a flick knife into school.
Caroline Willgoose, whose son Harvey was killed by another student in Sheffield, said the findings were "shocking" and that the government should fund metal detectors, or "knife arches," for all UK schools and colleges. "I just felt like I had to shield myself," a teenage boy from Sheffield, who claimed to have taken knives to school, told us.
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC found that there were 1,304 offences involving knives or sharp objects in 2024 at schools and sixth-form colleges in England and Wales. According to police reports, at least 10% of the crimes were committed by primary-school-aged children. Since the rate of knife crime in its police force area was so high, one educational trust in the West Midlands told us it was installing permanent metal-detecting "knife arches" in all four of its secondary schools.
Nearly every police force—41 out of 43 across England and Wales—responded to our request for information about knife incidents in schools. Two-thirds of them gave us reports on the ages and gender of the children involved, and those reports revealed that over 80% of crimes were committed by boys, the overwhelming majority of whom were teenagers.
However, reports of such young offenders are not always consistent across colleges and police forces, as the age of criminal responsibility is 10. The government told us in response to the BBC's findings that it has a "mission to reduce knife violence" and that "schools have the ability to implement security precautions, including knife arches where appropriate."
"Kids are going to school frightened," said mother Caroline Willgoose, and she believes knife arches could be a deterrent to crime. Her son Harvey was murdered by a fellow student with a hunting knife in February at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield. The 15-year-old boy was stabbed twice in the chest. According to Caroline, Harvey was reluctant to attend school because he knew some children were carrying knives.
"I always thought knives were a gang-culture thing," she said. "I would not have guessed there were knives inside school." The 51-year-old also said that many of the students and teaching staff who witnessed the incident are receiving trauma therapy. "It's been horrific. I can't describe the pain. We need to get into schools and inform children of the dangers and absolute destruction that carrying knives can bring."
Police forces were questioned by the BBC about charges with bladed weapons on school campuses in recent years. The knives found ranged from machetes, pen knives, flick knives, butterfly knives, and swords. Although the total number of knife incidents (1,304) has decreased slightly from the previous year, according to the statistics we obtained, the number of more serious offences—for example, assault rather than possession—has increased.
Some schools have responded to the increase in knife crime by implementing security technology to check for bladed weapons. Beacon Hill Academy in Dudley has recently installed a new knife arch—the BBC was able to see it in use for the first time.
The arch, according to Evie, a 16-year-old boy, is a stark reminder of future dangers: "You think about what it is for and what children do bring to school, and you never know. You've got to keep in mind that it was put in for a safety purpose."
"So, it's kind of scary on the one hand, but also reassuring," Archie says. According to head teacher Sukhjot Dhami, the school needs more safety; "whatever it takes to keep young people safe." The three other secondaries operated by Dudley Academies Trust are implementing similar security safeguards, according to the trust's response to the West Midlands Police area's high knife-crime rate.
According to the CEO of one of the UK's biggest metal detector manufacturers, sales of knife arches and handheld wands have risen. "Schools are our top prospects," according to Byron Logue, Internative Security Products' managing director. According to him, the company exported 35 knife arches to schools between March 2024 and March 2025, up threefold over the previous 12-month period. More than 100 knife wands have been sold to schools in the last 12 months.
"I think we've arrived at a point in the country where we can admit to a knife crime epidemic throughout the country, particularly amongst the youth," the businessman says.
We encountered three teenagers in a Sheffield gym who told us that knives have been used in schools. One boy, 15, told us he used to take a 12-inch knife into the classroom. "I'm going to kill you this time" was the first time I took a knife. So I begged one of my friends to give me a knife and I paid about £30 for it. "The teachers didn't notice," he says. "I used to walk in with a knife on my hip. So the knife wasn't moving around, I'd sit down." After being threatened and slashed on the hand by another student, another boy, 18, says he started carrying a knife into school. "I just felt like I needed to shield myself," he says. We asked the teenagers why they broke the rules and took knives into school. "You just have to take your precautions," one of them said. "Nowhere's safe really."
The three boys are in the gym as part of owner Trevor Chrouch's attempt to give young people a safer alternative to crime. Trevor, a former bodybuilder, is now teaching young people how to defend themselves. Secondary school students can use the gym for free, according to him. "I think students are taking knives into school every day. They've got their knife in the other pocket, just like their cellphone phone. It's because they're scared."
We asked the Home Office to read our findings. Through its Young Futures program, it said it was addressing knife crime's root causes, and that schools had the ability to implement their own safety equipment, including knife arches. It will also enforce "stricter controls for online knife sellers," it claims, as a result of supporting "Ronan's Law," which went into place in August. Although students are expected to bring knives into schools, the Association of Schools and College Leaders says that although it is encouraging for students to bring knifes into classrooms, it would like to see more efforts across society to tackle the issue.
"More than a decade of cuts to community policing and youth outreach services have resulted in school leaders, who all have found themselves without adequate or no assistance," Pepe Di'lasio, the general secretary. We asked the teenagers in the gym what would have stopped them from taking knives to school in Sheffield. The 19-year-old told us, "We're learning how to protect ourselves. You don't get taught that in schools. They only teach you science, not how to live life and how to handle your emotions more."