A FURIOUS mother says her 11-year-old daughter was told to ‘go back to class’ after she broke her ankle in a playground fall.

Melissa Barker, a pupil at Our Lady and Saint John Catholic College, in North Road, Blackburn, said she fell down steps during her lunch hour.

But she said staff at the school would not let her go home or call her mum to inform her of the incident.

Yesterday the school said an investigation was under way but was unable to comment further.

Melissa, who lives with her mum Helen King, in Glenfield Close, Little Harwood, said: “When I said what had happened the teacher said I was just trying to get out of class.

“I asked reception to ring my mum and they just said, ‘go back to your lesson, it’s nearly the end of the day’.

“When I was walking I could hear it cracking and it kept wobbling.”

Helen, a mother of five, said she had complained to the school that she was not called immediately on Wednesday.

She said: “They ignored her and she had to walk round on it for two and a half hours.

“They should have called me straight away.

“Eventually they found her in floods of tears in a corridor holding her foot.”

The school called Miss King at about 3.20pm after school finished to tell her what had happened.

She said: “I think it was out of order what the school did.

“I took her to hospital and they did an X-ray. They said she had broken a bone in her ankle.

“I spoke to the school and they said she had been seen by a first aider, which I said wasn’t true.

“When the woman checked, she apologised and said that had never happened.”

Melissa’s leg is now in plaster which is likely to be in place for around six weeks.

She said: “I can’t walk to the shop or go swimming.

“The cast is going to be on when it’s my birthday and I turn 12.

“I was going to go to town with my mum to buy new clothes, then go ice skating or to the cinema with some friends but now I won’t be able to.

“I also dance with Shad Beehives Majorettes as well and I won’t be able to go.”

A spokeswoman for Our Lady and Saint John Catholic College said: “The matter is under investigation and there will be no further comment.”

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Salford also declined to comment.