THREE mothers claimed today that violent bullying had forced them to remove their children from a York primary school.

Janet Graham claimed her son, Lee, eight, had talked of harming himself after a fellow pupil at Woodthorpe Primary School punched him, kicked him in the stomach and even urinated on him on one occasion.

Michelle Wood said her eight-year-old daughter, Bethany Kate, had twice been punched and had also had her wrists twisted by different pupils.

Theresa Hope claimed her daughter, Lisa, now ten, had been punched and kneed in the stomach earlier this year after a series of other bullying incidents over a number of years. She said Lisa had suffered some long-term pains which doctors had said might have been caused by the attack.

The mothers, all from Foxwood, said their children had now settled happily into a different school, Hob Moor Junior. They were speaking out because they were concerned that other youngsters might be bullied in future at Woodthorpe, which they believed had not done enough to protect their children.

Mrs Graham, of Greenwood Grove, said she believed her son had been picked on because he was timid and would not stand up for himself.

She said the problems had begun with name-calling about 18 months ago but gradually developed into violence. In one incident, last November, a school note records that he suffered a cut lip after being thumped in the mouth.

She said that another time, he was kicked in the stomach and the same pupil also "weeed" on his leg while they were in the toilets one day. She said she removed Lee from the school earlier this year, and he had now settled well in to Hob Moor Junior School, where she thought the approach to bullying was "brilliant."

She said: "He's like a different child. He has got more confidence."

She said she had complained to the school, governors and education authority, and believed they had all let her son down. She was speaking out now rather than at the time she removed Lee because she felt he had developed the self-confidence to handle the publicity.

Mrs Wood said her daughter had been bullied three times by different boys in January.

After the incidents, one of the perpetrators was excluded for a few days, she said. Copies of letters sent to the offenders' parents from the head show that the pupils had been punished in school, with the parents asked to "have a word" with their children.

The letters said that Mr Hodge would take "stronger, more formal" action if the pupils were involved in any future incidents.

Mrs Wood said problems then eased, until after her daughter returned to school from holiday last month, when she said she was punched on the arm by a Year 6 pupil.

"I then decided I had had enough, and took her out, and sent her to Hob Moor."

Ann Reid, who chaired the school's governors for many years until recently, said she was only aware of one case.

In that case, she believed progress was being made in dealing with the individual concerned when the bullied pupil was removed from the school without the head being informed, and without the mother exhausting the complaints procedure.

"I don't think bullying is any more widespread at Woodthorpe than in any other school," she said. "I am happy with the way that bullying cases are handled."

City of York Council education officer Mark Ellis said: "The local education authority gives all our schools guidance about what to include in their anti-bullying policies and provides support to schools, parents and teachers in bullying cases.

"We have undertaken research into pupils' concerns

about bullying, and the incidence of bullying in our schools is significantly lower than in other parts of the country, showing a two per cent decrease in the last academic year."

Updated: 10:43 Tuesday, October 07, 2003