AN EARLY warning system to protect York schools and schoolchildren from crime is to be launched in the city.

The Ringmaster System will enable schools to rapidly receive information from police or Neighbourhood Watch on everything from vandalism to prowlers.

The programme is already used by Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators. It sends out recorded messages within minutes of an incident at a school, allowing staff at other schools to warn pupils or take action against a threat to safety.

It will work alongside, and may eventually supersede, the York Alert system, which sends text messages to school mobile phones in the event of serious incidents.

York Alert has previously been used in instances when cars have followed schoolgirls home from school and when suspicious characters have been seen lurking outside school grounds.

The Safer York Partnership initiative will start within weeks and cover nursery and primary schools, secondary schools and private schools in the city.

Huntington School deputy head teacher David Kibble said the system would help keep children safe.

"Anything that gives us information of this kind is extremely useful," he said.

"And the great thing about it is that it can filter the information and send it only to those who need it."

York police's youth action officer, PC Jon Palmer, said that although it was not expected the early warning system would be used frequently as incidents in schools were relatively uncommon, it would help ensure the safety of staff, pupils and the school itself.

"It puts people on their guard and let's them know what's happening at other schools and what to look out for," he said.

"Ringmaster links up Neighbourhood Watch, residents' associations and schools on one system and will help schools become more closely linked as part of the community.

"If the school has a problem, the community has a problem."

Deborah Lynch, York Neighbourhood Watch's executive co-ordinator, said the system had proven extremely successful for their own use and had led to a number of arrests.

She said it would take about 20 minutes to get messages to every school in York and would also operate outside school hours and during school holidays.