The number of cases where children were found to be carrying knives in school has doubled over the past five years (Picture: Getty)

Police had to be called into a school by teachers after a four-year-old was found with a knife.

The incident was among more than a 1,000 cases where children were found to be carrying knives in schools last year, according to freedom of information laws.

Other makeshift weapons that police found among students included machetes, hunting knives, and a samurai sword.

In Manchester, an 11-year-old had replaced the nib of a highlighter with a blade and told another pupil: ‘Listen to me or else I’ll stab you’.

The alarming figures were discovered after a freedom of information request by 5 news.

Over the year, there have been a total of 1,144 cases of children carrying knives in schools in England, Wales and Scotland.

Police found students carrying machetes, hunting knives, and a samurai sword (Picture: EyeEm)

The number of incidents has also more than doubled over the past five years, according to data provided by 36 police forces in England and Wales, soaring from 372 in 2014 to 968 last year.

Former teacher David Simmons, who set up the charity Changing Lives, said a six-year-old brandished a knife at him while he was working in a north London school.

‘He was threatening other staff members and saying that he was going to stab them, so I’ve gone over trying to calm this child down,’ he said.

‘He’s then said he’s going to stab me and kill me.

‘At that age you just wouldn’t have thought that a six-year-old should be doing that. Why were they doing that?’

At Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School, in Birmingham, a policy has been implemented whereby staff carry out random checks on students, before they are made to walk through a knife arch.

There have been a total of 1,144 cases of children carrying knives in schools in England, Wales and Scotland over the last year (Picture: iStockphoto)

The school denied it had a problem with knives being carried by students, but headteacher Helen Burrows said the purpose of the checks was designed to teach children about the wider world.

‘It could happen at any school at any time,’ she said. ‘I don’t think a child bringing a knife into a school is a localised issue. It’s a national issue.

‘It’s quite simple for me as a headteacher that a child bringing a knife into school is not acceptable but we would never wash our hands of a child completely.’

Steven George, from the National Association of Headteachers, said referring a child to the police isn’t always the best option, adding: ‘What you’re trying to do is find a solution for that child.

Staff and officers carry out a random check at Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School in Birmingham (Picture: PA)

The alarming figures were revealed in a freedom of information request (Picture: Getty Images/imageBROKER RF)

‘Their family, circumstances, the neighbourhood they live in, the people they hang around with are all going to be factors and those aren’t solved with a phone call to the police.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Scotland has adopted a public health approach to violent crime, tackling the underlying causes of violence and not just the symptoms.

‘Our approach to knife crime, focusing on prevention, is recognised across the UK and internationally as making a real difference in keeping people safer.’

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A Welsh Government spokesman said: ‘There is a duty on local authorities and schools to ensure that schools are a safe environment for all.

‘If at any point the environment within a school becomes unsafe, the school should ensure that the relevant authorities are informed so that appropriate support can be made available.’