Dear Parents/Carers

We are writing to provide a follow up to yesterdays’ events regarding the malicious hoax communications made to a handful of schools across the Merseyside region.  Melling Primary did not receive any such contact, but we understand that the posts on social media caused distress and concern to families across the borough, including our own community. Today, we received the following update from Merseyside Police:

Superintendent Karl Baldwin said: “We are aware of the concern that was caused yesterday, following emails containing malicious communications being received by multiple schools.

“We are continuing to investigate to identify the person, or persons, responsible. We urge everyone not to share information that you do not know to be true. The matter is being treated as a hoax.

“I would like to extend my thanks to our schools, and partners, for their support yesterday, and the calmness with which the matter was dealt with.

“There have been no additional reports received by Merseyside Police and schools are open as usual today. You may see a heightened police presence in and around school areas. This is purely to provide support and reassurance and is in no way an indication that we consider there to be any real-world threat to any school.

“If you have any further concerns or require additional support or advice, please stop and speak to any police officer or contact us via our online reporting tool”.

Can I thank parents & carers, for dealing with this very difficult situation in a calm and orderly manner. Whilst a very small number of parents/carers decided to collect children from school early, your trust in school to keep children safe and your reasoned approach to the situation, did in itself help us to operate with extra vigilance, but also to avoid unnecessary distress to your children. It has been reported from many schools that the behaviour of some parents/carers did in fact cause a significant safeguarding risk to children and staff. Thank you for the way in which you dealt with the situation.

Coincidentally, we have been reviewing our Lockdown procedures and will be finalising our protocol with our Health and Safety Consultants this week. I intend to write to you by the end of this week with information of how we, in Melling, will deal with any situation that requires a ‘lockdown’.

Once again, many thanks for your continued support in such matters.