THE HEADTEACHERS of a number of schools have written to parents and carers regarding a viral online “school wars” trend.

The letter was signed by the chief executive of the Passmores Co-operative Learning Community, Vic Goddard; the headteacher of Passmores Academy, Natalie Christie and the headteacher of Stewards Academy, Stephen Drew.

The letter is below.

Dear Parents/Carers,

You may have seen reports on social media and in the local press about a viral online trend encouraging so-called “school wars”, where young people are urged to gather and confront pupils from other schools.

Locally, the police and headteachers have been working closely together following the appearance of posts referring to Harlow.

We want to reassure you that we have been in contact with Essex Police and are monitoring the situation carefully.

At present there is no indication that pupils from our schools are planning to take part.

In fact, when we have spoken to students about the posts, the overwhelming response has been that they think the whole thing is rather pathetic. As you would expect in a town like Harlow, many of the young people who attend different schools are actually neighbours, friends, or play on the same sports teams.

They are not easily manipulated by a random social media account trying to stir up trouble.

However, viral trends can sometimes attract attention simply because people talk about them. We would therefore ask parents/carers to have a quick conversation with their child about this and make it clear that they should not go anywhere near any location mentioned online where people are supposedly gathering. If any of our pupils were found to be attending such an event, we would take that extremely seriously.

We would also like to thank the parents/carers who have already contacted us to share information or concerns. We appreciate the partnership we have with families. The most helpful approach now is to avoid sharing or reposting the original content, as that simply gives more attention to something that most young people themselves recognise as ridiculous.

Finally, you may have seen that two people have already been arrested in connection with the original online post in London. This should serve as a reminder that creating or spreading messages that encourage disorder is not harmless.

Thank you for your continued support. As always, if you have any concerns or information, you think we should be aware of, please do get in touch.