A DISPUTE has broken out at a primary school after a teacher put videos of its pupils on the internet.

A woman claiming to be a parent at Snaresbrook Primary, in Meadow Walk, contacted the Guardian after spotting two clips of school assemblies on popular website Youtube.com.

When alerted by the Guardian, headteacher John Snow admitted the videos had been put on Youtube by a teacher without his permission, and swiftly ordered their removal.

But in a further twist, Mr Snow alleged the person complaining about the clips had been maliciously targeting his member of staff, and that no-one else had raised any concerns.

He said: “I have asked for the videos to be removed because I thought it was the best thing to do.

“They were harmless, you couldn’t even see the faces (of the children).

“I’ve talked about it with the teacher and he’s most upset about it. He did it out of the goodness of his heart.

“But there’s an awful lot of things going on behind the scenes. He had a disgusting email sent to him about this, it’s absolutely disgraceful, using very vitriolic words which you couldn’t put in a newspaper.

“We will be taking this forward. We don’t want this nastiness at our school.”

The anonymous woman who contacted the Guardian said: “I think it is absolutely disgusting."

They went on to accuse the school of hypocrisy. Snaresbrook Primary has a strict policy over the use of photos and videos of pupils, with parental consent required for all content being reproduced.

Mr Snow said the footage did have parental consent, and said the camera did not belong to the teacher.

The school recently received a glowing report from inspections body Ofsted for its “outstanding” provision for its pupils’ well-being.