POLICE are investigating three reports of pupils being groomed or sent indecent images on their school-issue iPads.

The offences involve children at Honywood Community Science School in Coggeshall, which pays for every pupil to have an iPad.

In one case, a girl under 16 contacted a man on the iPad outside school and swapped inappropriate images with him, but continued the exchanges at school.

Headteacher Simon Mason said: “Our investigation suggests while this pupil made contact with this person while not in school, in spite of the many layers of security on our school network, she was able to continue to converse with this person online, using an app we routinely block during the school day.

This is a situation about which we are extremely concerned.”

Mr Mason said the pupil had been coerced into sending inappropriate images to someone whose only rationale for meeting her online was to exploit her.

Mr Mason said staff intervened before she came to any physical harm. In a separate incident, the parent of another pupil claims an explicit picture on her 12-year-old daughter’s iPad was “shared” throughout the school.

The mum said she knows of at least two other pupils who have been targeted by a man via their school iPads.

She said: “I got a call on Friday from my daughter’s teacher to say an indecent image had been circulated after her iPad had been hacked into. Everyone she knew who had the picture has deleted it, but I heard it has spread to other schools. I was shocked the school had not reported this to the police, which I had to do myself.

“Honywood should have much stricter policies with the iPads.”

The picture was not of the woman’s daughter.

Essex Police are investigating.