A MOTHER has expressed anger at what she describes as an 'unacceptable delay' in telling her that her nine-year-old son went missing from school.

Stacey Broadbent claims that she should have been informed immediately after her son, Levi, left his the school yard at Walverden Primary School, Bracewell Street, Nelson.

The school have said that no breach of their procedures took place during the incident.

Levi, who has been diagnosed with ADHD and recently started taking medication, left the school just after noon on Wednesday.

He made his way across two busy roads into Nelson town centre to his mother’s place of work at the bus interchange cafe, a distance of around half a mile.

Miss Broadbent said that she had not been told been told that Levi had run away from school when she returned from her lunch break to find him being looked after by a colleague at around 12.30pm.

She said: “Apparently something upset Levi, he became distressed and left the school premises.

“I’m not saying that staff there didn’t know he had gone but I feel angry and let down that I wasn’t told immediately that Levi had run away.

“I was told that it’s the school’s policy not to tell parents for the first ten minutes after they are gone but I believe it was much longer than that before I was informed.

“I think parents should be aware that these policies are in place if anything like this happens to their child.”

Headteacher at Walverden, Margaret Thacker said that the school had followed its set policies during the incident and that Mrs Broadbent was in possession of that procedure.