PARENTS at an Odiham school have been warned about “killer clowns” visiting the school over the next week.

Students from Robert May’s School, in West Street, received a letter from the school’s leadership team stating it had learned from news accounts and social media posts a group of “irresponsible and thoughtless” individuals posing as “killer clowns” may visit the premises within the weeks ahead.

The “killer clown” craze has swept the nation, with individuals dressing up as clowns and threaten people – often using weapons for intimidation.

The letter said: “We have notified the police and have planned strategies to deal with this.

“The best approach is to remain calm, support your children to stay calm and not join in with any further social or news media posts.

“Social media posting and sharing is undoubtedly providing fuel for further publicity.

“It helps to make these evil and wrongly motivated people think they are having an impact.”

Last week a clown was spotted outside Bishop Challoner Catholic School, in St Michael’s Road, South Ham – promoting headteacher John Wright to confirm his students’ safety was the school’s “first priority”.

Gazette readers reported seeing a clown jumping out of the bushes near the school.

The letter continued: “We would like to thank family members for sharing their concerns about this craze with us, and for reporting what has been seen in local social media posts.

“As everyone will appreciate, the whole matter is counter-productive. It is an extremely unwelcome distraction from our core mission which is to provide the best possible education for the children and young people in our care.”

It added: “We would like to assure our families that we have planned to take all necessary precautions to ensure that there should be no interference to the normal running of the school in the days ahead."