THE mother of a special school pupil has complained to council officials in York after her daughter broke a tooth in a playground accident.

Mum Sharon Wilcox, of Rockingham Avenue, Tang Hall, said her daughter, Natalie, nine, had severe learning difficulties, and had difficulty in walking around and speaking.

She said Natalie had been knocked over by another child in the playground and had injured her face, breaking one of her front teeth. She said it was the fourth accident Natalie had had at the school and claimed no-one had been with Natalie in the playground when she fell.

She also said the school had drawn up a plan following a previous accident and claimed this had said that a qualified member of staff had to be with Natalie at all times.

Sharon contacted the City of York Council with her complaint because she said she did not want to deal with the school any more.

David Waite, head of special needs at City of York Council, said officers were looking into the incident and said the head teacher and staff had been very distressed by it.

The school had agreed that a plan had been drawn up, but had said that since then circumstances had changed. Natalie's independence had improved so much that she could walk on her own. There had been a member of staff in the playground and Natalie had just been checked by a teacher and was by herself in a wide space in the yard. It was believed another child had run towards Natalie and knocked her over. Four members of staff then attended to her.

The spokeswoman said: "There is a high level of supervision at the school.

"However, when children are in unstructured situations such as the playground there is always a risk that accidents may happen.

"We can confirm that Natalie has had four accidents in the last three to four years which is not unusual for a child like Natalie, particularly given her increased independence.

"If an accident does happen, the school will look into what happened to see if they can improve supervision for the child and will be doing that in this case."

Lidgett Grove School, which has 68 children, has 12 teachers and 21 support staff.

Updated: 12:34 Wednesday, July 11, 2001