A WORRIED mother is considering moving her son to another school after a beating from his peers meant he needed four hours of surgery.

Kirsty Barnard’s son Harvey, a year nine student at Patcham High School, was attacked by a group of around 20 other pupils during his lunch break after a game of football, leaving him with a broken shoulder.

She said the gang waited until 14-year-old Harvey was alone to pounce on him.

Ms Barnard, 36, said: “He tackled someone in a football match and they didn’t like it. They waited for him to be on his own and then chucked him on the floor, jumping on him and kicking him.

“Then I got a call to say Harvey has been hurt, so I went straight to the school to get him.

“When I got there he was in a lot of distress, so I called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital. I also phoned the police because it is an issue for them – it is like a gang attack.”

Harvey was still in hospital yesterday morning after a total of four hours of operations having had pins put in to support his shoulder and arm.

Ms Barnard, of Hollingbury, said: “In the ambulance Harvey was deteriorating and nearly passed out because of the pain. He had to be given morphine to ease it.

“He lost all sensation in his arm and is only just getting some of it back.”

She is now worried that the same thing might happen again when he goes back.

“This has definitely made me consider moving him to another school. Before we never had any problems, but I have to think about it,” she said.

John Mckee, Patcham’s headteacher, said: “We are investigating what happened on Wednesday, and we take incidents like this very seriously, especially given the nature of it.

“We have not reached any conclusions yet, but it will be dealt with. We don’t want anything like this happening at the school.”

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said the attack happened on Wednesday. She said: “Police received a report of a teenager injured during a fight at school in Brighton. The 14-year-old boy suffered a broken shoulder after being involved in a fight at Patcham High School in Ladies Mile Road. Police are investigating.”