A mum whose daughter went home in shock after being caught in the lockdown at King James's School says it has been recorded as an unauthorised absence.

Jenny Flinton’s terrified daughter Lauren texted her saying “I love you if I die” as she was cowering under a table during the drama yesterday.

When the procedure was lifted pupils were told to go back to lessons, but instead Lauren went home.

And now Jenny says the school has told her this was unauthorised.

The 15-year-old was in lessons at the Almondbury school when someone shot at a window with what has been described as a pellet gun at 9.50am.

Teachers switched off lights, locked doors and instructed pupils to get under their desks before the school texted parents to say the building was on lockdown.

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Jenny said Lauren texted again saying the pupils were all under tables.

She said: “She texted somebody has entered the school. Rumours were flying round – one teacher said there could be poisonous gas or a fire.

“I was so concerned. She said ‘we have been told not to text parents because they don’t want them coming up as the school is in danger.’

“Of course I went up. I was panicking. I was really upset, my older daughter was crying.

“We got there about 25 minutes after I got the text and there were no police there.

“My other daughter didn’t want me to get out of the car in case it was dangerous so her boyfriend, who was with us, went to reception, but they said ‘there’s a shooter, you need to go away, we don’t know if he’s going to shoot you.’

“We didn’t know what was going on so I rang 999 and asked if they were aware of this. It sounded like they didn’t know what was happening. She just took it all in a log.

“Five or six minutes later they phoned me back to say there had been an incident. Somebody had shot an air pellet gun at a window and staff had done this as a precaution.”

Jenny said Lauren told her when the autumn term started pupils were told there was a lockdown procedure and they would have to get under desks, but there had been no training and parents were not informed.

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She said: “Lauren said none of them knew what the alarm was. It’s a different tone to the fire alarm. They have never practised it.

“I am glad they’ve got it in place but they should have told parents.”

Yesterday headteacher Ian Rimmer said: “We took the decision to put the school into lockdown until we could determine what the situation was.

“The police entered and did a sweep of the area and deemed the area safe.

“The lockdown procedure follows Kirklees Council guidance and we have followed training in how to proceed.

“We understand that parents were concerned. The school was entirely locked down so they were not able to gain access.

“It’s a fine line between causing concern and providing reassurance that the situation was being dealt with and their children were safe.

“No children were affected or hurt.”

King James School has been contacted for comment on the unauthorised absence.