On the 4th of November 2021, a group of anti-vaccine protesters gathered near Newstead Wood School, in Orpington. The protesters were successfully moved along by police, after the school had requested their support, as the motives of the antivax protesters were unclear. However, the protesters were resilient and continued to hand out leaflets along Newstead Avenue, and eventually moved their position to outside Orpington Station, intercepting a popular route with Newstead students getting the train or bus home. As well as this, students from Darrick Wood School also pass through this route, as well as other members of the public, therefore, the protesters had positioned themselves in a busy area.

 

Many students passed by or came into contact with them at around 3:35pm onwards, when the school day had ended - students were handed leaflets made by the group, or even stopped to talk to the protesters. Imogen Sears, a student at Newstead Wood, said “I didn’t feel threatened or scared just annoyed by the argument.”

 

As students passed the protesters and saw their vibrant yellow signs quoting supposed statistics, they were offered a leaflet. The leaflets were dark blue and looked very similar to official NHS information, so, at first, many were confused as to their purpose and opinions - Sears also said that “there were around four people at intervals handing out scarily professional-looking anti vax leaflets to students.”

 

Police arrived outside Newstead Wood School the following day, the 5th, and school staff were also outside - further down Avebury Road and Newstead Avenue - on the lookout.