An 11-year-old boy has been excluded from school after an incident involving a plastic knife.

It happened after the boy had run the plastic knife over the hand of a support worker after he had been asked to move on.

The child is being kept out of Ashford's John Wallis Church of England Academy until the head teacher discusses what happened with his parents after the Easter holiday.

Principal John McParland said: "The student had pulled the plastic knife along the support worker's hand."

The incident happened in the Millband Road school's restaurant on Tuesday, April 5, three days before pupils broke up for the Easter holiday.

The staff member was not hurt in the incident and the school did not feel it necessary to report the matter to police.

Mr McParland explained: "The support worker wanted no further action but we were not happy with the incident and people who misbehave will be excluded.

"This boy has behavioural issues and needs one-to-one coaching.

"The support worker, who is employed by the school, has worked with him for the last couple of weeks.

"I will meet the boy's parents and we will look at his needs."

The John Wallis Academy opened only last September with Mr McParland taking the helm.

It replaced the troubled Christ Church School whose most notorious incident was when a 12-year-old boy being arrested for setting off a pepper spray canister in February 2008, that led to 60 pupils needing medical treatment.

The incident involved the Kent Air Ambulance being called and firefighters wearing breathing apparatus to deal with the aftermath.

Two pupils' fathers were arrested when parents' tempers boiled over at the school gates.

Four months later Christ Church was branded as one of three failing schools in Ashford and threatened with closure by the government if exam results did not improve.

No such troubles have been reported at the John Wallis but it was embroiled in a row last month when 10 pupils were sent home for putting red in their hair to mark Red Nose Day.