Alison Clarke, headteacher at Larkman Primary School in Norwich.; Photo: Bill Smith

Police and teachers launched a search after a child brought a knife into a city primary school.

The Larkman Primary School pupil has been suspended following the incident and children have been questioned about the missing craft knife’s whereabouts.

But headteacher Alison Clarke moved to reassure parents that children had not been put at risk and said the episode had been dealt with “entirely appropriately”.

The child brought the knife into school on Monday and was seen by another child using it at lunchtime, and teachers were informed. Police were on site at the time and immediately began searching the school premises for the knife.

“As soon as we were aware we dealt with it to ensure that children were safe,” said Mrs Clarke, who said the pupil had been suspended for four days. “There was no risk in that the child who brought the knife in had no intention to harm.”

She called the act “silly” and said it had been carried out by “someone who didn’t think about the consequences”.

Parents at the school reacted angrily on social networks at not being told about the incident sooner, with many learning about it from their children.

But Mrs Clarke said the school posted a notice on its Facebook page on Tuesday, as soon as the circumstances had been established, and sent a letter home with children last night.

“There has to be a level of trust between the school and parents,” she said.

She said an assembly yesterday had reminded children to tell staff if they saw anything dangerous going on in school.

“A number of children knew what was going on and didn’t tell anybody,” she said.

A police spokesman said a child had been given “strong words of advice”, adding: “A PCSO attended the school on Monday afternoon in connection with an unrelated matter when staff alerted the officer to reports that a child had brought a knife into school. Searches were carried out but no knife has been recovered,” she said.