An eight-year-old boy was left terrified after another pupil held a knife to his throat in a primary school canteen.

Jake Bird, who is autistic, was eating lunch at Cliftonville Primary School in Margate when, unprovoked, another pupil grabbed his head and pressed the cutlery item to his throat.

His dad Steven says the school should have taken the incident more seriously - and wants young children to be better educated on the dangers of knives.

But the primary’s head teacher says the matter was thoroughly investigated and “appropriate follow-up actions were taken”.

A dinner lady reportedly intervened immediately to disarm the boy with the knife, but Jake was still left with a mark on his neck which was visible several hours later.

Mr Bird said: “Jake is usually happy-go-lucky, very charismatic in his own way. Even though he is on the verge of being non-verbal, he expresses himself through gestures.

“Jake’s mum picked him up at school after the incident and that evening he was shaken.

“The only way he could describe it was by pointing to his throat and saying: ‘I was scared.’

“At a primary school, you would never hear of such a thing.”

The metal knife in question was a piece of school cutlery given to children to eat their lunch with and not sharp.

Nevertheless, Mr Bird is calling for the primary - rated outstanding by Ofsted - to educate youngsters on the dangers of knives and for the parents of his son’s attacker to say sorry.

“We’ve had no apology from the parents - no attempt to contact us whatsoever,” the 38-year-old builder said.

“Children need education about knives at an earlier age, especially as knife crime is getting worse and worse. This could be happening to our children at younger ages.”

Emails seen by KentOnline reveal school bosses consulted with Kent Police regarding how the incident, which took place on February 6, should be dealt with.

But Mr Bird believes the child’s punishment was not sufficient - despite head teacher Claire Whichcord telling him that she had delivered “the most serious consequence at [her] disposal”.

The dad-of-one said: “We were told that the boy would only be restricted during his playtime, which was quite abhorrent really, considering what he’d done. There should have been some form of suspension.

“Because this happened right before half-term, I think the timing allowed them to kind of sweep it under the rug.

“After the break, we met with the head and the deputy head and they didn’t feel that any further action needed to be taken.”

KentOnline asked Ms Whichcord, who is also the school’s designated safeguarding lead, about how the incident was addressed and what, if any, plans exist to educate pupils on the dangers of knives.

In a statement, the head teacher said: “The incident was a lunchtime incident that occurred in the school lunch hall, involving school cutlery while the children were eating.

“The matter was thoroughly investigated and appropriate follow-up actions were taken.”

Inspector Jim Woodward, of Thanet's Community Safety Unit, said: “Incidents in schools are extremely rare, but as part of Kent Police's zero tolerance approach, we regularly visit schools around the county to speak to children about any safety concerns they may have.”