Eight primary pupils were taken to hospital after eating cannabis-laced sweets at their Sheffield school.

Police have launched an investigation after emergency services were called to Phillimore Community Primary School in Darnall just after midday last Tuesday (February 25). This followed reports of ‘suspicious circumstances’ regarding pupils who ingested sweets suspected to contain the drug.

Eight children were immediately hospitalised as a ‘precaution’, but were discharged the same day.

A spokesperson for the school said that after being released from hospital, the students ‘rejoined classes’.

No pupils suffered any long-term effects from consuming sweets that contained the drug. It is unknown whether the students had taken street-drugs marketed as ‘edibles’, or whether the sweets had been unknowingly laced with the Class-B drug.

The school has consistently achieved a rating of ‘Good’ in Ofsted inspections since 2016, when it became an Academy.

Although the primary school performed higher than the UK average in Key Stage 2 Reading and Maths, one would-be parent said the incident had deterred her from putting her children into the school. Bethany Dyche, from Aberdeen, said that she was ‘about to put an application in for her kids’ to join the school but, commenting on a post discussing the event, said it was ‘no longer’ a choice.

The enquiry is currently on-going, and South Yorkshire police are requesting anyone with information on the event to get in touch online, via live chat, or by calling 101, quoting incident number 334 of 25 February 2025.

Picture: Google