'Lessons to be learnt' over older Stoke High School pupil Published duration 16 February 2019

image copyright Snapchat image caption A pupil at Stoke High shared an image on social media with the message: "How's there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?"

An MP said he hoped lessons would be learned by the Home Office now an adult asylum seeker has left a school where he posed as a 15-year-old pupil.

The man, whom Year 11 classmates claimed was as old as 30, was found to be an adult following an age assessment carried out by the local authority

Stoke High School in Ipswich said neither the man nor a Year 7 pupil, who left at the same time, had returned.

It said the matter was now closed. The Home Office would not comment.

Ipswich Labour MP Sandy Martin said: "I hope the Home Office will have learnt a lesson from this."

image caption Neither the Year 11 pupil nor a Year 7 pupil have returned to the school

The issue came to light when a pupils at Stoke High School shared an image on social media with the caption: "How's there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?"

After concerns were raised by pupils and teachers in November, the Home Office said disputed-age cases were "a challenging area of work".

It said Home Office staff had to rely on "physical appearance and demeanour" to assess a person's age.