AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy has been excluded from Wheatley Park School after being found with a knife.

Other students saw the Year Seven pupil take the kitchen knife out of his pocket shortly before 9am on Thursday and told a teacher.

The boy was asked to hand over the knife and did so.

Headteacher Kate Curtis said nobody was threatened or harmed and she denied reports on social media that the boy had waved the knife in the faces of other pupils.

In a letter sent to parents and the Oxford Mail she said: “Bringing any kind of offensive weapon into a school is a serious breach of our disciplinary policy and must be taken very seriously.

“This individual made a very poor decision to bring a dangerous item into school. It is not appropriate for me to share with you my decisions about another student, but I want to reassure you that the safety of children in the school is paramount.”

The boy was removed from lessons and his parents called before he was excluded.

Ms Curtis did not say how long he had been barred for, and was critical of speculative posts people had made about the incident on Facebook.

She said: “It is very regrettable that some people have used social media untruths to cause fear and anxiety, which are at odds with what happened.”