Scarlett Jenkinson was facing exclusion from school

The then 15-year-old was in the process of a managed transfer from Culcheth High School to Birchwood High School, where Brianna attended.

This was following her suspension from Culcheth following an incident which involved her bringing cannabis edibles into school, consuming them on site, and supply them to another student who believed they were just sweets.

But today, Thursday, Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard how prior to Brianna’s murder, this transfer was acknowledged as ‘likely to fail’.

This was following Scarlett ‘not quite achieving targets set’.

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Day two of the inquest into Brianna’s death heard how on February 1, 2023, Birchwood High School contacted Culcheth High School to inform them that there had been an incident where Scarlett was accused of ‘having cannabis edibles on her’.

However, she was not found in possession of any.

Although Birchwood High School attempted to arrange a meeting with Scarlett’s parents about this, they were not able to get hold of them. It was heard how the school was unable to contact them on many occasions.

Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard from assistant head teacher at Culcheth High School Martin Cushing how in the original meeting to discuss Scarlett’s managed transfer, it was stated that any drug-related incidents would cause the transfer to fail.

Emma Mills, headteacher at Birchwood High School, told the inquest how prior to Scarlett’s transfer, she met with her and her mum.

She said: “I she requested to be present at that meeting to speak to Scarlett and her mum as the school had some concerns over her timetable

“I also wanted to be able to speak to Scarlett myself to be able to talk to her about how have a zero tolerance approach to drugs in this school and to let her know if she had anything at all to do with drugs at this school then the managed transfer would be ended.

“I was very clear with Scarlett when I met with her that’ she needed to accept she would be under greater scrutiny than other children as part of a managed transfer.”

The inquest heard Culcheth never made it explicitly clear to Birchwood that Jenkinson had been involved in 'spiking' a younger pupil with drugs at school.

And in a statement jointly approved by both school’s lawyers, they said there is 'no consistent recollection' about the information passed on about Jenkinson from one school to the other.

(Image: NQ)

But the schools say, even if all available details had been passed on, it was still likely Birchwood would have taken Jenkinson on as a pupil.

During her 47 days at Birchwood High School, this is where Scarlett met Brianna.

Ms Mills said how on Scarlett’s timetable, there was one of her options that the school couldn’t do as they were doing a completely different syllabus to Culcheth.

“There were two hours a week where she wouldn’t have a lesson and we agreed she would go to the inclusion classroom and she would be able to work on her English and maths, she was set work she could do independently in those hours," Ms Mills said while giving evidence.

This is a staffed room where Brianna spent her time in school where she would work on one-to-one with a teacher.

Out of Scarlett’s time at Birchwood, there were only five days where she would be in this room at the same time as Brianna.

Senior coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish asked Ms Mills if there was there anything to suggest that Brianna would have been placed at risk by being in the same place as Scarlett.

Ms Mills responded: “No.

“In the inclusion room they wouldn’t be able to communicate anyway and it was such a short amount of time they were in there.

“Brianna would usually be doing a one-to-one and Scarlett would be at a computer facing a wall.

“I would say being in that room in some ways is a less of a risk than being in a normal classroom with 30 pupils and one teacher.

“There was nothing that we saw or that was displayed by Scarlett that gave us any cause of concern.”

The court also heard how there is a ‘buddy room’ at Birchwood High School that is open at breaktimes which can be used for pupils with additional needs or for example those who get anxious at break and lunches.

It is a smaller-sized classroom and is always staffed.

Ms Mills said if that Brianna was in school, she would be in there at breaktimes. Although she said at the time Brianna was not actually in school much and had low attendance.

Ms Mills said: “The teachers had noted that Brianna and Scarlett were in there at the same time and were seen chatting

“It was seen as quite a positive thing, they were children who were both quite anxious.”

The inquest will continue tomorrow, Friday.