Pupils with additional needs are being separated into a “cuckoo” room at a Witham primary school, it is claimed.

Concerns have been raised by parents about disciplinary practices at Templars Academy and the isolation of those who need more support into the controversially named room.

Mum Gill Elliott removed seven- year-old Caleb from the school for a week. She said: “He is being investigated for special needs.

"Instead of helping Templars take them out of class and send them to a behavioural class in the infant school, which is a mixed ability class.

“It’s really poorly named, that’s the only bird linked to mental illness, it’s not exactly appropriate.

“When he gets upset he hides under the table and the teachers pull him out instead of dealing with it.”

She claims some children are banished to the room, kept inside during lunch breaks and can be banned from trips.

She said: “He doesn’t understand why he is being pulled out, he just repeats what teachers have said, which is because he’s made poor choices.

“Our GP has said he needs to be in social groups, he needs extra time to process things.

“He’s ended up behind in his education and it’s so disruptive.”

Another parent pulled her daughter out permanently due to bullying.

She said: “She was called fat and they said ‘let’s kill her’ and a boy put his hands on her mouth and tried to stop her breathing.

“They blamed my daughter saying she needed to stay away from him.”

The Cressing Road school was rated inadequate following its previous Ofsted inspection before converting to an Academy. Executive headteacher Jane Bass claimed the cuckoo room “intervention” is an effective alternative to exclusion.

She said: “I can’t see why any par -ents would be upset by the name, it’s putting adult connotations on something. They are all named after birds. We have an intervention that has been put in place to stop people being excluded. The school will arrange a meeting with all parents involved.”

Witham MP Priti Patel said: “I have worked closely with Templars and the Connected Learning Trust to bring to their attention any concerns raised by parents.

“The trust and the academy have managed to dramatically improve the attainment of all pupils and drive-up standards.”

She urged parents with concerns to get in touch and said the school was making “tremendous” progress.