Security Advisory: Managing the ‘School Wars’ Trend

27 February 2026 by chrisgallant Leave a Comment

Managing the ‘school wars’ trend. How your school can mitigate the risk of and respond to inter-school violence

Over recent months, we have observed a concerning rise in organised, inter-school violence, commonly referred to among pupils as “school wars” or “the rumble”. These events are typically coordinated via social media platforms (such as Snapchat, TikTok, and WhatsApp) and involve pupils from neighbouring schools meeting at specific locations, often at the end of the school day, to engage in mass altercations.

These incidents pose a severe threat to pupil safeguarding, staff safety, community cohesion, and your school’s reputation. As your security and crisis management partners, Pharos Response have compiled the following guidance to help your leadership team prepare for, prevent, and manage these events. Whilst these points are aimed at inter-school violence, they can of course be adapted to other situations involving violence or protective security threats. The police and other sources are of course the primary source of advice on security and your school should ensure that it maintains effective liaison with the local Neighbourhood Policing Team. The Department for Education also provides advice on managing emergencies and protective security.

1. Information gathering and early warning

The most effective way to manage a ‘rumble’ is to prevent it from happening. These events rarely occur spontaneously; they are normally planned and publicised online.

Social media monitoring: While respecting privacy boundaries, ensure pastoral staff are attuned to open-source social media trends. Look for specific hashtags, location pins, or confrontational videos tagging your school and neighbouring schools/colleges.
Anonymous reporting: Ensure you have a robust, trusted, and highly visible anonymous reporting system. Pupils often want to report these events, but fear reprisal if identified.
Behavioural indicators: Train staff to recognise pre-incident indicators. This includes unusual groupings of pupils, a sudden rise in tension, posturing, or pupils hiding items in their bags (potential improvised weapons). Pastoral staff may often have their ‘ears to the ground’ and should escalate to SLT colleagues any suggestion of such behaviour.
Information sharing: Establish open lines of communication with the Headteachers and Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) of neighbouring schools. If you hear a rumour, share it immediately.
Take action swiftly. Consider ‘nipping it in the bud’ by holding an assembly; let students know the school is aware, and the implications on pupils getting involved. This will help justify later sanctions.

2. Site security and access control

During a heightened threat period (such as when a ‘rumble’ is rumoured for that afternoon), physical security and staff deployment must be adapted as an extension of safeguarding.

Perimeter ‘hardening’: Ensure all secondary access points to the school site are locked and secured well before the end of the school day. Channel all departing pupils through primary exits that can be heavily supervised by staff at the end of the school day.

Staff deployment: Once risk assessed and if necessary, consider deploying suitable staff, such as facilities/estates team colleagues, in high-visibility jackets to the school perimeter exit gates at the end of the school day. A visible presence, including use of VHF radios, where available, may help deter an incident and aid in swift response.

Staggered dismissals: If credible information suggests a confrontation is imminent outside the school gates (see point 4 regarding emergency services), consider a staggered dismissal or holding specific year groups back until the threat has dispersed.

Dynamic lockdown readiness: Ensure your invacuation/lockdown procedures are practised and ready. If a hostile group from a neighbouring school approaches your gates, the immediate priority is to lock the perimeter and keep your pupils safely inside. Tighter access control, physically monitoring CCTV and other technology may also be helpful and should be used in accordance with existing emergency procedures.

3. Incident response and management

If a ‘rumble’ breaks out on or immediately adjacent to your school grounds, staff safety and pupil containment are the absolute priorities.

Do not engage physically: School staff should not act as riot police! Intervening in a mass brawl involving potentially armed teenagers poses a severe risk. Staff should instead use verbal commands to disperse crowds from a safe distance and warn that the police are on route. This should ideally be done by suitable staff who have been trained in how to manage aggression and defuse such situations, in line with your existing policies, procedures and risk assessments.

Contain and deflect: Focus staff efforts on preventing uninvolved pupils from joining the crowd. Form a physical staff barrier (at a safe distance) if possible to direct departing pupils away from the incident zone.

Capture evidence: If it is safe to do so from behind the school perimeter or inside the building, designate a staff member to video the incident. This will be useful for police investigations and school disciplinary procedures later. CCTV should also be focused on the area where possible.

Notify Pharos Response: If you subscribe to Pharos Response’s emergency response service, call your emergency number for specific security, safety and incident management advice.

4. Emergency service liaison

Swift and effective coordination with local authorities is essential before, during, and after an incident.

Proactive engagement: If information suggests an event is planned, contact your local Safer Schools Officer (SSO) or local neighbourhood policing team immediately. Agreed a method of communication and keep them updated as the information develops. Request a heightened police presence at dismissal time. Do not wait for the violence to start before calling them.

Emergency response (999): If violence breaks out, call emergency services immediately. Be clear and specific: state that a “mass public order incident involving children” is occurring, specify the exact location, estimate the number of individuals involved, and state whether weapons have been sighted.

Single point of contact: Have a designated member of the Senior Leadership Team ready to meet arriving police and ambulance crews to provide a rapid briefing and guide them to the incident. Police should be advised of the best gate to enter the site through if there are multiple gates and it would be helpful for them to arrive by a gate that is different to the main one.

Critical incident plan. Responses to such incidents may be included within the school emergency or critical incident plan, this should be consulted and the response coordinated accordingly where relevant.

5. Crisis communications

In the age of smartphones, videos of these incidents are likely to be posted online within minutes. Indeed, one of the aims of ‘rumbles’ or ‘school wars’ is that physical confrontations are recorded and posted online. Therefore, your stakeholder communications must be swift, factual, and reassuring.

The ‘golden hour’: Aim to issue a holding statement to parents within the first hour of a major incident. If you do not provide the school’s narrative on a situation, social media will.

Parent messages: Acknowledge that an incident occurred off-site/at the gates, reassure them that emergency services were called, and state that all pupils remaining on site are safe. Ask parents to speak to their children about the severe consequences of participating in or spectating such events. Parents may well of course choose to collect their children from school and this may lead to greater traffic management consideration at the end of the school day.

Internal messaging: Brief staff with the facts to prevent rumors from spreading within the school.

Media holding statement: Have a pre-drafted statement ready for local press.
Example: “We are aware of an incident involving young people from several local schools in the community this afternoon. School staff acted swiftly to ensure the safety of our pupils and cooperated fully with local police, who dispersed the group. We are assisting the police with their inquiries and will take robust disciplinary action against any of our pupils found to be involved.” Keep it factual, emphasise the concern for pupil safety and the actions taken as opposed to drawing premature explanations of potential causes.

Engage specialist support: Managing crisis communications is a specialist skill. If you retain Pharos Response 24/7 emergency support or have a crisis PR agency, notify them as soon as possible regarding any serious incidents.

6. Post-incident actions

The aftermath of a ‘rumble’ requires careful management to prevent retaliation.

Disciplinary: Work with the police and neighbouring schools to identify key perpetrators. Apply your behavior policy consistently and robustly; involvement in organised violence should carry severe sanctions. Work with your DSL to support pupils who may be additionally vulnerable to gangs or other exploitation.

Safeguarding and counselling: These events are traumatic for the pupils who witness them. Ensure pastoral support and counselling are available in the following days. Such incidents are likely to combine behavioural, pastoral and safeguarding expertise to manage in the aftermath.

School community engagement: Host an assembly to address the incident directly. Reiterate your values and the legal/academic consequences of violent behaviour. Update parents regarding actions taken within school, direct parents to school behaviour policies and emphasise the school/home partnership that when combined effectively, helps moderate behaviour.

Navigating this challenging trend requires vigilance, strong community partnerships, and robust procedures. We are here to support your leadership team through this complex landscape.

How prepared is your school or college?

Is your school overdue a site security audit?
Do you have a reliable, genuinely helpful emergency plan that would guide your SLT in managing this and other critical incidents?
Do you have access to specialist crisis communications support in the event of a major incident?
When did your SLT last practise responding to a major incident?