Schoolboy left in London while rest of class travels back to Newcastle

A schoolboy was accidentally left behind at London’s Kings Cross Station after the rest of the class boarded a train back to Newcastle following a school trip.

The unnamed 14-year-old had been on the trip with his classmates and four staff members from the Discovery School, in Newcastle, when he was left behind at the station.

Staff reportedly informed the station as soon as they realised their error and arrangements were immediately made for the child to meet a teacher waiting at York.

An ‘urgent review’ of safeguarding procedures on school trips has now been launched.

In a statement, headteacher Gareth Rowe claimed that there is ‘no excuse for what was a serious error on our behalf.’

‘They were never in any danger as they had the presence of mind to immediately let station personnel know what had happened’, Mr Rowe said.

‘They were put on the next train and looked after by the guards in first class until they could be reunited with their teacher in York.

‘However there is no excuse for what was a serious error on our behalf.

‘Our first priority is always the safety of our pupils and obviously this incident highlights a failure in our processes which will now be reviewed and amended so this can never ever happen again.’

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

• Burglar, 26, who raped and murdered ‘fragile’ pensioner, 72, in her own home jailed for life

• YouTube comedian Count Dankula convicted over ‘grossly offensive’ Nazi salute dog video

• Man dies at Vue cinema after getting head stuck in electric recliner seat while picking up his phone

• How to delete or deactivate your Facebook account if you’re worried about privacy

• Police watchdog launches probe after armed officers shot at suspect 13 times

The Discovery School is a specialist science and technology facility for pupils aged 13 to 19 which opened in 2014 at a cost of £9m.

It faced a damning ‘inadequate’ grade by Ofsted last summer, but a subsequent monitoring inspection in November claimed that staff were working effectively to improve the school.

A Newcastle City Council Spokesperson said: ‘The local authority has been notified of the incident by the school and has received assurances from the school that the pupil is safe, that this incident is being fully investigated and that the school is carrying out an urgent review of its safeguarding procedures for school trips to ensure that this does not happen again.’