A classmate posted this photograph on Snapchat with the caption: “How’s there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?”

Parents at a school where an adult asylum seeker posed as a child have criticised “useless” staff for not alerting the authorities earlier.

The man, who is from the Middle East and appears to be in his thirties, spent six weeks in a year 11 class at Stoke High school in Ipswich and claimed to be the same age as his classmates.

An investigation was started after a pupil posted a picture of him in uniform on Snapchat with a message saying: “How’s there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?” The man’s classmates also discovered what appeared to be old pictures of him on Facebook with a full beard, a hairy chest and drinking beer.

Some parents withdrew their children from the school, concerned