Family stunned by three year old’s home-alone bid

Tamimul Islam with his father Khairul Islam

A SCHOOL is at the centre of an investigation after a three-year-old pupil was found wandering the streets.

Little Tamimul Islam was spotted by a driver after walking out of St Hilda’s Primary in Coldhurst unseen by staff.

Upset Tamimul told the woman motorist he wanted to go home rather than back to his nursery class, which he had attended for only a few days. He directed her to his house in nearby Eleanor Street where he was reunited with his stunned family.

Tamimul’s angry father Khairul Islam, said: “The family is still shocked. When I saw him in my house I didn’t know what to say. Anything could have happened to him — the school couldn’t explain what happened.”

Tamimul’s aunt added: “We cannot be sure how long he was outside the school on his own.

“People should have been watching him and guarding the main entrance to make sure no child could get out. If he had walked for a few minutes more he could have walked into a main road by himself and been seriously hurt.”

She thinks Tamimul may have left because he had struggled to settle in at school: “The school has apologised and the gates are now permanently locked. He is back in school and they have told us he is being watched.”

Gillian Pursey, head teacher at St Hilda’s, said: “We unreservedly apologise for the obvious distress this caused. We are taking this incident extremely seriously and are conducting an internal investigation to find out exactly what happened. The welfare of each and every child here is our top priority.”