DOZENS of Oxford parents have signed a petition calling for the headteacher of their children's school to be replaced.

They have taken the unusual step of calling on Oxfordshire County Council to remove headteacher Keith Ponsford from Bayards Hill Primary School, in Barton.

Parents said a brawl between two families at the school gates on Tuesday was the last straw and have accused Mr Ponsford of not doing enough to resolve the year-long feud between the families.

They have also claimed ongoing bullying, a failure to keep children on school premises, health and safety issues and what they saw as a disappointing Ofsted inspection are reasons to replace the headteacher.

However, Oxfordshire County Council has defended Mr Ponsford and backed him to turn around the school's fortunes.

Parents began collecting signatures on Wednesday and about 80 names had been picked up by Friday. The petition will be sent to the school, county council and Oxford East MP Andrew Smith this week.

Mother-of-five Sarah Phillips, 33, from Claymond Road, said: "There has been a very good response to the petition. A lot of people are not happy with him.

"I just think they should get a better headteacher who has got some discipline."

Two dinner ladies were involved in Tuesday's brawl, which took place in front of dozens of children and parents at the gates of the Waynflete Road school.

One of the dinner ladies was bitten and the other knocked to the floor during the fight. One man has been arrested and bailed.

Mrs Phillips, who is a friend of one of the dinner ladies, said: "It is disgusting -- the children should not have to witness that."

Mr Ponsford was put in charge of the 422-pupil school in January 2006, having taught at the school 30 years earlier.

When he arrived, the school had the lowest average points score in the county for Key Stage Two tests and one of Oxfordshire's highest truancy rates.

An Ofsted inspection in January found the head was giving the school a clear direction and the momentum for improvement.

The report also said he had been successful in improving pupils' personal development and that behaviour, attitudes to learning and attendance had improved under his leadership.

But it graded the overall effectiveness of the school and achievement and standards categories of its report as "inadequate" - the lowest mark possible - and handed the school a Notice to Improve'.

Mr Ponsford, who spent 10 years as headteacher at Cutteslowe Primary School, has declined to comment on the petition or the fight.

But a county council spokesman said: "This petition presents a very partial and discriminatory view of the headteacher and indeed of the school's recent Ofsted report.

"We have every confidence that, under Mr Ponsford's leadership, the school will prosper."

Kelly Wells, 26, a mother-of three from Mather Road, said her eight-year-old son had been bullied since September.

She said: "Since the previous headmaster, the school has just gone downhill. It needs somebody to come in and make our school a better place to send our kids."