PUPILS should be wary of sharing school fight footage on social media sites like Snapchat, Swindon police have warned.

It came as Kingsdown pupils were excluded after video of a terrifying scrap circulated online. The pupils, believed to be Year 8 girls, can be seen fighting in their school blazers although the fight did not happen on school property.

Following the incident, North Swindon community co-ordinator Tom Fryszka said: “We’d ask all school pupils to be responsible, to not share online footage such as this and put themselves in the shoes of the victim. It is extremely distressing for them and their families.

“Parents also need to be part of the solution, speaking with their children, explaining that this isn’t acceptable and there are consequences to this type of behaviour, be that school exclusions or the involvement of police.

“Of course we understand there may be community concern around this so would encourage anyone to come and talk our officers and report any incidents of concern.”

He said police officers were working closely with schools to combat bullying: “We have an active youth engagement programme and through this, many of our PCSOs work directly with schools to help with anti-bullying programmes and implementing different methods of dealing with unacceptable and anti-social behaviour.”

Emma Leigh-Bennett, headteacher at Kingsdown School, condemned the violence.

“It’s very damaging for the children involved. It’s very damaging for our school and we sincerely hope this will never happen again,” she said.

Since the incident took place, the school had changed the theme of its assemblies to look at acceptable behaviour and was working closely with the police.

The headteacher, who started at Kingsdown in 2017, said the school had a network of anti-bullying ambassadors - trained students meant to be a friendly ear for pupils who had bullying concerns. Teachers were more visible, wearing hi-viz vests during lesson changeovers. She added: “But we can’t be everywhere at once, which is why I’d appeal to parents to be talking to their children and report anything of concern.”

In a letter to parents last week, Mrs Leigh-Bennett said of the fight footage: “Incidents like this significantly undermine the transformation taking place at Kingsdown and the sense of pride that we all have in our school.

“I remain determined that the school must take a firm line on antisocial and dangerous behaviour.”