Incident at Archbishop Holgate's CE School in York

The executive head teacher at Archbishop Holgate's CE School in Badger Hill in York, Andrew Daly, has written to parents following an incident at the school on Wednesday this week (May 15).

He says it follows rumours circulating on social media of a weapon being brought into school, but says the rumours are untrue.

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In the letter Mr Daly says: "Parents and carers may be aware that a rumour began circulating on social media regarding an offensive weapon being brought into school.

"We are writing to inform you that this is categorically untrue and also to inform parents and carers that had such an incident occurred, we would have contacted families with information about this.

"We understand that any such rumour or suggestion is concerning for parents, carers and the wider community.

"Whilst there was an incident in school on Wednesday, this was effectively dealt with through our usual school systems and structures and did not involve any form of weapon.

"We want to give our ongoing reassurances that we have robust systems in place to ensure that our school remains a calm, positive and safe place for both students and staff. Like every school, we are required to have systems in place to deal with any extreme incidents and we are confident that these systems are effective and well-understood by all staff.

"Indeed, entirely separately, we had a fire alarm on Wednesday afternoon that highlighted the high standards of behaviour from our students and their willingness to follow instructions linked to safety and evacuation."

Andrew Daly with pupils

The school is one of York's best-performing secondaries and as The Press reported back in February, head teacher Marie Townsley stepped down from her role after only months in post.

As The Press reported at the time, Mr Daly became executive head teacher of Archbishop Holgate's alongside his continued role as CEO of the Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust back in 2022.

At that point Alexis Green-Harding became the head of school for Archbishop Holgate's and led the day-to-day life of the school with Ms Townsley becoming head last Autumn and Mr Green-Harding returning to the role of deputy. 

In a letter to parents Mr Daly said: "The leadership arrangements for the school will largely mirror those that were in place last year, with Mr Green-Harding and Miss McDermott leading the school on a day-to-day basis whilst I will provide additional support and in-school capacity throughout the week."

The school was inspected by Ofsted back in 2022 and came away with the top 'outstanding' judgement in all areas, something increasingly difficult to achieve.

Mr Daly said at that point that while the Ofsted did not identify anything, ‘the school needs to do better’.