Independent Review Finds Series of “Missed Opportunities” Before Fatal Stabbing of Sheffield Schoolboy Harvey Willgoose

There were failures and “several missed opportunities” to address behaviour and manage risk prior to the fatal stabbing in school of 15 year old Harvey Willgoose, an investigation has found.

An external investigation and review examining how a fellow pupil at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield was able to stab Harvey has been finalised. It found weaknesses in leadership, gaps in policy, poor implementation of government guidance and serious shortcomings in record keeping that meant weapons related concerns and escalating behaviours were not acted upon effectively.

Harvey died on 3 February 2025, after being stabbed twice in the chest whilst in school, during lunch break. Mohammed Umar Khan, then aged 15, was found guilty of his murder by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court last year and was locked up for 16 years.

The private review was commissioned by St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust, which runs the school, and undertaken by a former school headteacher and inspector of schools at Learn Sheffield. The report seen by expert lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, the law firm supporting Harvey’s family, found that from the point Harvey’s attacker was first considered for a move to All Saints through to the day of the killing, school leaders “could, and at times should, have taken different action,” with system weaknesses contributing to “oversights, assumptions and misjudgements.”

The report said safeguarding and behaviour records were not requested or reviewed before Khan’s move from another school to All Saints Catholic High was agreed and, when later transferred, were not read due to unclear responsibility. This meant staff were unaware of historic incidents involving violence, weapons references and anger. The intended behaviour modification programme was also not implemented on arrival.

The report sets out 10 recommendations for the school, its Trust, the local authority and the Department for Education. Harvey’s family and their legal team at Irwin Mitchell are calling for immediate action to ensure the recommendations are put in place and upheld to ensure schools are safe and to prevent future knife crime in schools.  

Yogi Amin, the head of public law and human rights at Irwin Mitchell, representing Harvey’s family, said: “This thorough and forensic investigation identifies numerous occasions where action should have been taken and wasn’t. The catalogue of errors makes for deeply troubling reading and just adds to the hurt and pain Harvey’s family have had to endure following his totally unnecessary death.

“Schools have a duty of care to their pupils. While it’s too late for Harvey and his loved ones, the family wants guarantees that decisive and meaningful action will be taken to implement these recommendations. We also encourage other school leaders across the country to review their policies and practices to ensure they’re fit for purpose and so other pupils aren’t put in harm’s way by similar failures.”

The report said weapons related concerns were handled inconsistently. After pupils reported in October 2024 that Khan had previously carried a knife and brought a BB gun on a school trip, staff carried out a search but failed to investigate further, complete a risk assessment or put a safety plan in place, and records were incomplete. In December 2024, when an axe was found in his bag off site, police were informed but no in school follow up occurred, which the review described as a safeguarding failure.

The review also identifies policy gaps, unclear management responsibilities, and multiple occasions where government guidance was not followed, including inadequate after search safeguarding checks and delayed or missing entries on an online child protection management system. At the time the system had no knives/weapons category, meaning incidents were logged as general behaviour.

As Khan’s behaviour escalated between November 2024 and January 2025 school leaders should have been “joining the dots” and recognised these as opportunities for intervention.

Despite an open investigation into a fresh knife allegation, on 3 February 2025, and only partial awareness among senior staff of previous weapons incidents, Khan was allowed into school unsearched and without any completed assessment — labelled a collective leadership failure.

The report sets out 10 recommendations for the school, its Trust, the local authority and the Department for Education.

These include: 

• Mandatory record sharing at the outset of any pupil school move, with senior sign off confirming full safeguarding and behaviour records have been reviewed before a pupil starts.
• Clarity in safeguarding and behaviour, including who monitors patterns of serious incidents.
• Create a clear weapons response policy.
• Fix systems and training including adding dedicated knives/weapons categories in online system and ensure all staff are trained on government guidelines on how to search, screen and confiscate knives.
• Sheffield City Council to establish a city-wide support system for pupils involved in, or at risk of, knife crime.
• The Department for Education to issue further national guidance on how schools respond to knife possession and reports of knife possession.  

Caroline Willgoose, Harvey’s mum, said: “Harvey was the light of our lives. Anyone who knew him will tell you he was a fun loving, cheeky, sociable kid who filled every room with energy. He had big dreams, he was always laughing, always bringing people together. Losing him has torn a hole in our family that will never be repaired.

“Every day since Harvey was taken from us has been agony. I still hear his voice saying ‘I love you’ before he left for school that morning — the last words he ever said to me. No parent should outlive their child, and certainly not because of something as senseless and avoidable as a knife being brought into school.

“Reading the findings of this report has been devastating. To see in black and white the chances there were to step in, the signs that were missed and how many opportunities there were to protect my boy is something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. Harvey deserved better. All the children in that school deserved better.

“We’ll always be angry by what happened to Harvey but more than anything I’m determined to unite people to bring about change for the better. I’m determined that no other family should have to sit in court listening to how their child was killed or have to read a report that lays bare how their child could have been better protected.

“I want to use my voice, and Harvey’s memory, to push for real change. This means proper safeguarding, proper training, proper record keeping, and most of all proper understanding among young people about the dangers of knives. Children need to be taught that carrying a knife doesn’t protect them. It destroys lives, including their own.

“If I can save even one child, spare even one family from what we have been through, then Harvey’s spirit will carry on.”