A MUM has been banned from Dartmouth Academy and threatened with legal action after launching a Facebook attack on the school where all four of her children are being taught.

Tracy Skinner was told last month she had been banned from the academy 'at all times' for the next six months at the same time as she was warned the school was taking legal advice over alleged defamatory comments on Facebook.

The 31-year-old admitted she had clashed with the school over the behaviour of her sons on a number of occasions.

But she claimed she merely wrote on her Facebook page that the school needed 'a good kick where the sun don't shine'.

She said she could not remember if her comments had included personal attacks on members of staff.

But she said she had removed them all when the school wrote to her.

A letter signed by academy principal Nick Hindmarsh, dated January 18, told her: 'Following our meeting last week and the discussion we had about your conduct I find that you have failed to heed my warning and consequently I am banning you from the academy site at all times.

'Posting defamatory comments about named individuals on Facebook has legal consequences and as such we are placing this matter in the hands of our solicitors.'

The letter also warned that if she showed up on school premises – including the school car park – police would be called in under the 1996 Education Act 'which makes it a criminal offence to be on school premises without permission'.

Mrs Skinner lives with her husband Nigel and their children Kieron, 11, Jake, nine, Cameron, seven, and three-year-old Chelsea in Townstal Road, Dartmouth.

She said both Jake and Cameron had been suspended on several occasions each in the last few years.

She admitted: 'I have really naughty children and the school keeps suspending them.

'I just want them to help the children instead of suspending them all the time. I have told them that many times. I don't like that headmaster and he doesn't like me.'

She said she had consulted a solicitor after receiving the school letter. And she claimed it was now impossible for her to pick up her three-year-old from the school's nursery section while she is banned from the school premises until July 20 this year.

At the moment she is being dropped off and picked up by her husband but that won't be possible when he is out looking for work, she said.

She said she had tried to get Cameron into another local primary school but the school had refused to take him 'because he is so naughty'.

She added she was due to have another meeting with the school at Townstal Community Hall to discuss Cameron who had been suspended on a half-day basis since before the half-term break.

An academy spokesman said this week: 'Mrs Skinner has been banned from the site for repeated breaches in acceptable behaviour towards staff and other parents. Her statements on Facebook are only part of the reason she is banned from the premises.

'We were informed of her status updates on the social networking site by other academy parents who felt they were unacceptable.

'She was banned from the Dartmouth Primary School and Nursery site for similar behaviour before the formation of the academy.

'A system has been put in place so that Mrs Skinner's daughter can be collected safely each day.'