An angry mum is keeping her six-year-old daughter at home after she walked out of a Bradford school unnoticed - for the second time.
Amelia Naylor left St Augustine's Primary school in Undercliffe and walked home after being upset by a friend.
Mum Victoria Brankin said she rang the school about half an hour after her daughter arrived home - to be told they had not realised she had gone missing from the school in Westminster Road.
"It's a disgrace. Anything could have happened to her and I can't believe the school doesn't have better security," said Miss Brankin. "She could have been abducted or run over or worse.
"When your child is in school you expect them to be safe and not to be able to just walk out.
"How can a six-year-old be able to just walk out of school without anyone noticing?
"Luckily I was at home waiting for a parcel to be delivered, as I had planned to go out shopping."
The school has admitted its procedures were at fault and is investigating how they can be improved.
The school, which is in special measures and has applied to the Department for Education and Skills to go through the Fresh Start programme, which involves closing and re-opening the school and wiping out its £282,360 debt, issued a statement confirming the incident and said it was now reviewing its security procedures to prevent it happening again.
Amelia had to walk up the school's long driveway, which is uphill, and through the open gates.
The five-minute walk to her home in Stanacre Place involves crossing two cul-de-sacs off Westminster Road as well as Prospect Road, which is off busy Otley Road.
Amelia, who also walked out of school unnoticed last year and was taken back by her mum, started school at 9am on Thursday but by 9.45am she was back at home.
She is normally walked to school by her mum or is dropped off by a family friend.
She told her mum her friend left her to go to assembly and was upset at being left alone so she asked a teacher if she could go to the toilet and decided to go home.
"She's not happy at that school and she has been picked on and bullied a lot. This is the final straw and I'm refusing to send her back," said Miss Brankin, 22.
She rang the school at 10.20am - by which time Amelia had been out of school for about an hour - and was told they did not know Amelia was missing.
"If I'd been out all day it could have been 3pm by the time they realised she was out of school and a lot could have happened by that time," she said.
Now Miss Brankin, a single mum-of-three, is trying to find a place for Amelia at another school.
A statement from St Augustine's said: "There was an incident on Thursday when a child left the school premises through a fire door from the toilet area.
"The school has apologised to the parent and a full investigation is taking place.
"School procedures are being followed and the chairman of governors has been informed.
"Our security procedures are being reviewed to prevent further incidents occurring."
Councillor Mukhtar Ali (Lib-Dem, Bowling and Barkerend) said it was shocking Amelia was able to get out of school.
"She could have ended up anywhere, it's very worrying," he said.
"The school should make sure this doesn't recur because it's very poor that this should happen twice to the same girl.
"It's very dangerous in this day and age for a girl to be able to walk out of school and walk home when there are lots of serious of incidents that can take place.
"The school should now try to take the parent back into their confidence as I'm also concerned for the girl's schooling and education."
Councillor Phil Thornton, chairman of Bradford Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee, said "It's always worrying when something like this happens and I would expect the school would seriously be reviewing its procedures to ensure something like this doesn't happen again."
The school spokesman said: "The primary purpose of the CCTV cameras is to protect the school premises out of school hours,
"Although the cameras are on during the school day there are very few primary schools which would have the capacity to monitor them constantly.
"We take the safety and welfare of our pupils very seriously and, as already stated, security precautions are being reviewed."
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