Parents said they received texts from the school confirming it had gone into lockdown after receiving a threat – and that their children would not be leaving at the end of the school day
10:45, 20 Jan 2026Updated 11:08, 20 Jan 2026
The school closed its doors and called the police after receiving the threatening message(Image: )
A school in Liverpool was forced into lockdown after receiving a threat via email which prevented pupils from going home.
Parents said they received texts from Holly Lodge Girl’s College confirming it had closed its doors at 2:55pm on Monday, January 19, after a report of malicious communications. “Please be aware, the school has been placed in lockdown whilst we investigate an incident on site,” one message read.
“This will mean that your daughter will be kept in school after the school day until we are sure students are safe to leave.”
A further text at 3.25pm said it was now safe for students to leave the school and go home as usual, the Liverpool Echo reports. Headteacher Andy Keen sent out a letter to parents and guardians yesterday following the incident.
Holly Lodge Girl’s College was forced to close on Monday as an investigation was launched(Image: )
He said: “I am writing to clarify the situation that occurred at the end of the school day today. The school was made aware of a potential incident late this afternoon in the form of an emailed non- specific threat. Following advice from the police, we asked that students stayed in their classroom, together with their teacher until we could be sure there was no risk to them.
“As we would expect, our students conducted themselves impeccably and were calm and sensible throughout. We are very proud of them and we are proud of the way our staff looked after them.
“Our leadership team and staff followed all advice and once the police had established that there was no danger and our students were safe, we were able to allow them to go home.”
It was later confirmed by Merseyside Police that the threat was a hoax. A spokesperson said: “We can confirm officers attended Holly Lodge Girls’ College in West Derby following a report of malicious communications.
“At around 2.30pm yesterday (Monday, January 19), we received a report that someone had sent a hoax email to the school. If you have any information, you can call 101 or DM @MerpolCC on social media, quoting log number 528 of 19th January. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
Mr Keen said other schools in the area had received hoax threats recently. His letter added: “The threat was a hoax, but I am sure you appreciate that we cannot and will not do anything that will jeopardise our students’ safety. This is not the first incident of this nature, which has happened to Liverpool schools recently.
“I would also like to reassure you that, as you are probably aware, schools have very secure visitor access control, and it is highly unlikely that an unexpected visitor would be able to access the school unchallenged.
“There is no evidence to suggest that this incident was anything other than a hoax. This means that all students should be in school, as normal tomorrow (Tuesday).”