A HEADTEACHER has pulled a song from her school’s harvest festival concert after parents complained it was too hard hitting.

Two mums contacted Mersea Island School after they found out their children were going to be singing about famine and fear.

They said they would stop their children taking part in the concert.

Now Nicky Sirrett, headteacher at the Barfield Road school, has decided to replace the song.

Mrs Sirett said: “We have listened to the concerns of a very small minority of parents. I have had two contact me, and have decided not to do the song.”

The parents complained about the song Newspaper Pictures because the lyrics are about dying and not new life.

One mum, who asked not to be named, said her nine-year-old son had raised his own concerns about the song.

She said: “It was sent home as homework, but when I had a look at it, I couldn’t believe it.

“I am not trying to put my son in a bubble, but I also do not think they should be singing songs with such words in them.

“It talks about mothers holding dying children and tanks rolling into war-torn towns. There is even a line where it more or less says there is no hope.”

She said the children in the year below were singing a song about tractors bringing in the crops, which she said was more appropriate for harvest festival.

She added: “I know of a number of parents who have said they don’t want their child to sing it on Tuesday.”

Another concerned mum said the song did not have any message of hope and was “sung like a dirge”.

She had hoped the school would change its mind once parents complained.

The mum said she could not understand why a song that was more about war and dying than harvest time, had been chosen for a festival that is more about growth and new life.