A MUM has spoken of her anger after her six-year-old child was allowed to leave school unaccompanied.

Tara Tanham says she was on her way to pick up her daughter, Gypsy-Angel, from after-school club at St Catherine’s Academy last Thursday when she received a call from a teacher to tell here the girl had “absconded”.

Ms Tanham says her daughter told her a boy had been “winding her up” and that she had warned a teacher she would leave but was not stopped.

The school says a full investigation into the incident has been launched.

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Gypsy-Angel was found safe shortly afterwards at a park in Waggon Road, but Ms Tanham says the situation left her feeling “physically sick” and has criticised the school for not calling the police and advising her to call 101 after a search.

She has since taken her daughter out of St Catherines and has contacted safeguarding officers and Ofsted to complain about what happened.

“They’ve tried to put it down to her behaviour but that’s just not right,” she said.

“Her behaviour sometimes can be out of control but even if she was kicking off with them, it’s not acceptable that they have allowed a six-year-old child to leave school.”

A spokesman for St Catherine’s said: “We cannot comment any further but there is a full and rigorous investigation taking place.”

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After receiving the call at around 5.15pm to tell her that her daughter had left the after-school club, Ms Tanham said she ran to the school from near her home on Winchester Way. She then rang around to family and friends and it was her sister who found the girl about half an hour later.

She said: “I thought, my six-year-old daughter is out on the streets, oh my God, where is my kid, please let her be alright.

“Usually I don’t even let her play out there, she plays in the garden or in the house, not out on the street."

Ms Tanham also says she was not contacted by safeguarding officers at the school until a week after her daughter stopped attending.