Police are investigating reports of pupils being groomed or sent indecent images on their school iPads.

They are linking three offences involving children at Honywood Community Science School, in Coggeshall.

In one case, a girl aged under 16 contacted a man via iPad outside of school and swapped inappropriate images with him. 

Headteacher Simon Mason said: "Our ongoing investigation suggests that while this learner made contact with this person while not in school, in spite of the many layers of security on our school network, the learner was able to continue to converse with this person online, using an app that we routinely block during the school day.

"This is a situation about which we are extremely concerned."

He said she had been “coerced into sending inappropriate images to someone whose only rationale for ‘meeting’ the learner online was to exploit them”.

Mr Mason said staff intervened before she came to any physical harm and they will “support this young person and help them to learn from their mistakes”.

In a separate case, a parent of another pupil claimed an explicit picture was shared throughout the school when her daughter’s iPad was allegedly hacked.

The woman said she knew of at least two other pupils who had been targeted by a man via their school iPads.

See this week's Braintree Times for more.