A headteacher confronted an 11-year-old pupil carrying a knife in school during tonight’s episode of Educating Greater Manchester.
The new series of the hit Channel 4 series was filmed at Harrop Field School in Salford in 2018.
In the first episode, which aired tonight, head Mr Povey was forced to search through the bags of students after hearing a pupil had been seen carrying a blade.
He discovered the culprit was Year 7 student Lewis, before the youngster burst into tears and admitted he hadn’t realise how much trouble carrying the knife could have gotten him in.
Year seven pupil Lewis found himself on the hot seat when he admitted to bringing the knife to show it to his friends
Year 7 pupil Lewis sobbed after being confronted by his headteacher about the knife in school, saying he didn’t know why he had it
During the episode, the teachers were called for a meeting with Mr Povey and explained a member of the public had phoned the school to report seeing a student carrying a knife.
The person reported seeing a 13-year-old boy with black hair and wearing a blue blazer and a hoodie carrying a ‘switch blade.’
He told the camera: ‘It’s extremely shocking to hear the report of a knife.
‘The first thing we need to do is speak to all staff. Let’s get staff aware, let’s get that extra vigilance out on the corridor.
Lewis had brought a blunt butterfly knife that he had bought online to the school, and was spotted by a passer-by, who reported it to the establishment
Head teacher Mr Povey, pictured, had to confront one of his 11-year-old pupils for bringing a knife to school in Channel 4 series was filmed at Harrop Field School in Salford
‘It’s about getting as much intel as we can. We’ve got to get on this and we’ve got to get on this right away.’
Taking to the corridors, Mr Povey spoke with several older students, whom he said were some of his ‘most trusted’ Year 11 pupils.
He told them: ‘Boys, I need a favour. I need you to keep this between us so I need to know I can absolutely trust you.
‘We think there has been a student that has had a knife before school today.
‘Off the record, I need you to go out there and I need you to get as much information as you can as to whether you’ve heard anything about knives.’
Explaining his rationale, he said the teachers needed the assistance of students, revealing: ‘We’ve got 900 students at Harrop and as staff we can’t be everywhere all of the time.
After realising how dangerous his action had been, Lewis could not help but shed tears in the headteacher’s office
‘There are certain students I would trust to be able to help us deal with any issue we had in school.
‘These particular boys, I know, would go out and see if they could find any information for us.’
While his pupils went on to collect information, the headteacher set up a bag search check point to begin looking for the knife.
Mr Povey explained: ‘The moment you start doing something like a bag search, you’re going to get people worried. You’re going to get people panicking.
‘You’re also going to get young people talking to each other, saying “Something is happening in school, something is going on.” That is not going to be helpful for us as a school.’
Mr Povey caught Lewis during a bag search, when he asked him whether he had anything on him he was not supposed to
He continued: ‘As a headteacher, you have to keep as calm as possible. On one hand, I’m trying to put the students at ease, cracking jokes.
‘On the other hand, I’m extremely conscious we still haven’t found the knife yet.’
With the alleged knife still not found, the concerned staff continued their bag searches.
Stopping one black haired boy, the headteacher lifted his lunch out of the bag before saying: ‘And have you had anything else on you today that you shouldn’t have?’
The youngster admitted: ‘I’m not sure if this is allowed, but all my friends wanted to see this thing I bought online. It’s a blunt butterfly knife.’
Mr Povey explained he would not call the police, but would notify Lewis’s parents of his behaviour
The large red pocket knife was folded and put on Mr Povey’s desk during his confrontation with Lewis
Mr Povey explained: ‘If you’d have told me first thing this morning when I got up that I would have been dealing with a knife issue, and if you’d told me I’d be dealing with knife issue with Lewis, I’d be bowled over.
‘Lewis is one of the best and brightest young students we have ever had at Harrop Field.
‘He’s got a YouTube channel, I mean, the kid is a genius in many ways. It’s very unusual for this young man to do what he has done today.
‘We’ve got to help him understand, it is a mistake, but we help him learn from his mistake.’
Sitting down in his office with the youngster, Mr Povey held the knife and said to him: ‘This is a training blade. You tell me why we’ve got a problem with this being in school.
Lewis said: ‘It could hurt people.’
Mr Povey replied: ‘The first thing is, it could hurt people. The second thing is?’
Lewis responded that people ‘might get scared’, with Mr Povey questioning: ‘Who might they ring if they think there’s a knife in school? The police. And that could get you in a lot of trouble.
‘I’m surprised you brought this in. Did you not think about any of these things before you brought it in?’
Lewis admitted it was ‘in the back of his head’ while Mr Povey said: ‘It wasn’t very smart and it has landed you in quite a lot of trouble.’
And when the 11-year-old confessed that his parents didn’t know he had brought the knife into school, the headteacher continued: ‘What do you think your parents are going to say when Mr Povey rings them up and says, “Your Lewis has brought in a training knife and we’ve spent all day looking for it?”
‘They’re probably not going to be very happy.’
The little boy could be seen welling up and his chin wobbled as he said: ‘They’re going to tell me off.’
As tears rolled down his cheeks, he admitted: ‘I knew I shouldn’t have done it and I feel bad for the people who got scared and that you’ve been looking for it.’
Mr Povey told him he wouldn’t phone the police, but instead called the young boy’s parents.
Lewis said: ‘I think my dad will be pretty mad at me. I let myself down and I let everybody else down.’
The boy was placed into isolation until his father arrived in school, with Mr Povey telling him: ‘All I want to do with you today is he will never bring anything like this in again to school or work.’
The teacher called Lewis into the room, with the where he told his father he ‘wouldn’t bring the knife into school or take it anywhere outside the house.’
Mr Povey told him: ‘We don’t want this in school. It’s not okay. You are amazing as a student, 3.7 million views on YouTube.
‘It would be interesting to talk about the dangers of this stuff. You’ve got an audience and a voice. Use this as a positive.’
YouTuber Lewis went on to post a video with his subscribers about the dangers of knives, which he went on to share with Mr Povey.
He said: ‘I wanted to make the video because I felt really bad about myself for doing a bad thing.
‘Knife crime is really bad so try to stay away from it.’
Mr Povey told him: ‘You’ve done a good term. Are you going to stop knives going into school because of that video?
‘You’ve made a big difference. At your age, that’s impressive. I’m made up.’
- Educating Greater Manchester continues next Tuesday at 9:15pm on Channel 4