A school in Leeds is attempting to tackle forced marriages by giving their pupils spoons to hide in their underwear to trigger airport metal detectors.

Students at the Co-Operative academy in Harehills have all been given the cutlery as part of a programme designed to raise awareness about “honour”-based abuse and forced marriage.

The scheme has been implemented in the hope that pupils who fear they are being taken overseas for an arranged marriage can hide the spoons in their underwear. This will then trigger airport metal detectors and allow students to raise the alarm with security staff privately.

Harinder Kaur, the social, culture and ethos leader at the academy said the spoons would “save lives.”

Ms Kaur said that 80% of UK forced marriages happened abroad during the summer holidays, making it peak time for parents to take daughters abroad to be married.

The spoons can be hidden in underwear to trigger airport metal detectors credit: Michael Nagle/Getty Images

“In the six-weeks holidays we know there is no contact between school and the family and families have that opportunity to go abroad, get their child married and come back,” she told the Guardian.

“It's a way of making our children aware there is a safety net there.

“As educators, we have a responsibility to empower children with the knowledge and ability to make a difference to their own lives and the lives of others.”

The academy, an inner-city secondary school, is working with the charity Karma Nirvana, which campaigns against “honour”-based abuse and forced marriage.

Last year the charity took nearly 9,000 calls on its forced marriage helpline. Almost 200 of those calls were made either by children aged 15 or under or on their behalf.

Families have that opportunity to go abroad, get their child married and come back

Natasha Rattu, the head of learning and development at Karma Nirvana, said girls were often conditioned from a very young age to consider arranged marriages to be normal and cited that the charity’s helpline peaked over the summer period.

She added that the spoon method had been used successfully in the past and helps raise awareness in young people who might not realise they are victims of the abuse themselves.

“The summer holiday is the ideal time for parents who want to take their child abroad to be married because the school won’t be looking for where they are,” she added.

A law making it a criminal offence to force people into marriage came into effect in June 2014.

Parents who force their children to marry can be punished by up to seven years in prison.