A hoaxer tried to stop Ipswich students going to revision classes over the Easter holiday by claiming their school had been “maliciously damaged”.

The fake text message was sent out to Copleston High School pupils and said the school was “unsafe” for children because it had been damaged.

Teachers reacted and put a message on the school website telling parents that it was a “malicious text message” and was “presumably an April Fool’s joke”.

Headteacher Shaun Common said the around 70 holiday revision classes ran as normal and teachers had treated the hoax message as a prank.

“It could have been one child trying to get out of going to the revision classes, we do not know,” he said. “The point is that all the revision classes were well attended, it did not have any effect in terms of students attending.

“We have no idea who did it, we just wanted to make sure everyone was fully aware classes were running as normal.”

He also thanked staff and students for their “commitment” to run and attend the classes over the holiday.

The message put on the school’s site in response to the hoax text message said: “There is a malicious text message being sent round to Copleston students telling them that ‘the school premises have been maliciously damaged’ and that ‘the school remains unsafe for students to attend school’. This is not the case. The text message is presumably an April Fool’s joke. The school will remain open as usual.”