Yusra Hussien gave 'no sign' she would flee to Syria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-33353166

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A schoolgirl thought to be in Syria gave no sign she was about to flee there, the head of her former school has said.

Jon Angell said Yusra Hussien's former teachers still felt guilty that they may have missed a chance to stop her.

He spoke to the BBC as a new legal duty on schools to prevent people being drawn into terrorism came into force.

Yusra, 16, from Easton, Bristol, is still missing nearly a year after boarding an indirect flight to Turkey.

Her parents last saw her as she left for school on 24 September 2014.

'Questioning themselves'

Friends told the BBC she got married soon after arriving in Syria, although there has been no official confirmation that she is there.

Her family feared she had been "brainwashed or radicalised" online.

Mr Angell, who was made interim principal of City Academy after Yusra's disappearance, said: "People feel really guilty. They are questioning themselves - 'Did I miss something?', which is a natural reaction and I think the answer is probably 'No, you didn't' because there were no signs.

"No-one saw that coming."

He said work was being done in lessons to tackle the threat of extremism but added there had been a "heightened awareness" since Yusra's disappearance.

The counter-extremism requirements, applying to primary and secondary, state and independent schools, mean teachers will have to assess the risk of pupils being drawn into extremist ideologies. There will be training for staff to identify children at risk and "to challenge extremist ideas".

NUT leader Christine Blower has warned that teachers "cannot be turned into spies in the classroom"

But Mr Angell said the new rules were about "keeping children safe" - in the same way that staff would look out for signs that a child was being groomed for sexual abuse.