Gordano School: Pupils injured in crush at gate

A man whose son was injured in a crush at a school gate has criticised its handling of the incident.

Gordano School in Portishead, near Bristol, says the gate was not open in time at the end of the school day on Monday so a "surge" led to injuries.

Glyn said his son had two black eyes and print marks on parts of his body from other students' shoes.

The school says it is investigating what happened and will update the community.

Head teacher Louise Blundell said pupils were being supported and a "whole school online broadcast" to address what happened was taking place.

Videos of the incident have been shared on social media, showing several pupils on the floor being helped by others.

The school said several pupils were injured after the crush

Glyn said he hoped the school was going to support the pupils, and that his son Oliver, a Year 9 pupil, was "feeling very subdued".

Having grown in Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, which led to 97 Liverpool fans losing their lives after a crush at an FA Cup semi final, Glyn told the BBC the incident at the school "impacted me really hard".

He said: "Where are the teachers? Where are the teachers pushing the kids back or organising them?

"When the gates are open you have five, six, seven hundreds pupils all going for one gate.

"Surely there must be somebody there who says 'actually you cannot go through this'?

"This is all common sense, this is a small gate."

Oliver's dad says he is 'totally dissatisfied' with the school's response

He claimed that when parents collected their kids the school "only said there was an incident", adding that he was "totally dissatisfied with what has gone on".

Glyn added: "To learn from your own son and daughter that this has happened, and being shown videos going around from other pupils and the school not doing anything about it is extremely wrong."

'Safety of utmost importance'

Ms Blundell said: "There was an incident at one of our exit gates yesterday [Monday], when a gate was not opened in time for the end of the day.

"This resulted in a surge of students trying to leave the school site, which led to some pupils being injured.

"Staff were immediately on the scene and several students visited the school's first aider before going home.

"This morning we have been reviewing the situation as well as offering support to students and running an additional whole school online broadcast to address what happened.

"The safety and wellbeing of students is of the upmost importance to Gordano School, and we will continue to investigate what happened and update the school community in due course."