A secondary school in Islington ended its day early on Thursday afternoon after concerns were raised about a phone call, then returned to a full timetable on Friday after police decided the call had not been genuine.
Lift Beacon High, on Hilldrop Road near Tufnell Park, said officers were contacted on Thursday 8 October following reports about a call to the school that could have posed a threat. Acting cautiously and following police advice, staff cleared the building during the early afternoon and the school day was brought to an early end, with families informed through the school’s usual channels.
The school later told families that police had confirmed the call was a hoax and that enquiries into the circumstances were continuing. Lift Beacon High said it had opened at the usual time on Friday 9 October and that lessons were going ahead as planned. It also thanked its school community for a calm and orderly response while the building was emptied.
Families looking for confirmed updates should rely on messages issued directly by the school and on official Metropolitan Police channels. The information released by the school about Thursday’s incident does not include any account of injuries, and no further operational detail has been added here beyond what the school itself has shared.
Why schools act before a threat is checked
When a worrying call arrives, a school rarely has a quick way to judge whether it is real while pupils and staff are still inside the building. That uncertainty is why precautionary action comes first. The Department for Education’s school and college security guidance, first published in November 2019 and updated on 3 July 2026, is written to help school leaders plan for emergencies. It covers evacuation, invacuation and lockdown, the handling of bomb and threat alerts, and how to support pupils, staff and parents after an incident has ended.
In practice, that planning means a headteacher can decide, with police advice, to move everyone out first and let officers assess the credibility of a threat in parallel. It also means thinking through supervision at assembly points, safe routes away from the building, and how a sudden journey home in the middle of the afternoon will work for different age groups. London schools regularly revisit those basics after any disruption. A Welling school launched a review after a child left the site unnoticed at Hillsgrove Primary, while a Greenwich primary tightened its security after a similar incident at a breakfast club. Different causes, but the same underlying discipline: clear the immediate risk, account for everyone, then review what the day revealed.
What families can do when the school day ends suddenly
Short-notice closures test the systems families rely on every day. The most useful step during an evacuation is usually to wait for the school’s own parent messages rather than travel to the gates unasked. Extra vehicles and crowds can slow emergency access and make an orderly dispersal harder to manage. Unless the school asks you to collect in person, follow the instructions in its official update and keep your phone available in case arrangements change.
It also helps to keep the contact details the school holds for you up to date, including mobile numbers and any alternative carers who may need to receive alerts. Many London families already plan more than one route home. Work recognised when a record 1,057 London schools won gold awards for greener and safer journeys shows how much preparation goes into ordinary travel. On a disrupted day that preparation matters: an earlier journey home may mean different buses, darker stops at the edge of the afternoon, or a walk with friends rather than a solitary route.
If you have information that could help police understand a threatening call, use the routes published by the Metropolitan Police. Call 999 in an emergency and use 101 or the Met’s online reporting options for non-emergency information. Passing on rumours from group chats does not help investigators and can cause needless worry for other families, so check that anything you share comes from the school or from police.
Afterwards, keep routines as steady as you can and leave space for questions at home. A sudden evacuation can feel dramatic even when, as here, the school has confirmed a hoax and reopened the next morning. If worries linger into the following week, contact the school through its normal pastoral routes so staff are aware. For Lift Beacon High families, the key facts remain simple: Thursday’s call was treated seriously, the building was cleared as a precaution, police later described the call as a hoax, and Friday’s school day ran as usual.
