ROSE Hill Primary School’s governors have come out fighting after we reported their legal threat to muzzle a mother’s complaints about bullying.

They claim the story a week ago – in which Samantha Barson said she was not happy about how her complaints about bullying were handled and was warned she may face legal action if she went too far – was one-sided and we had not verified the facts.

We are happy to publish that and their defence in the interests of balance. But if the school dealt with Mrs Barson’s complaints in the way they have handled our inquiries, then we can understand her frustration.

Far from failing to “verify the facts”, we sought over several days to get a proper response (indeed any response) from the school.

Calls to the headteacher, the governors and Oxfordshire County Council all resulted in nothing.

It was only after the story came out last Monday that governors’ chairman Ali Akkas made contact.

Interestingly the governors’ response was only in the form of a letter. We are still waiting to be able to put questions to them – those we feel parents of children at the school deserve to have answered.

Issuing letters will lead some to worry that the real issue – whether children are being bullied at school – is not being addressed.