HENRY Webster's mum has blamed his school for failing to protect him.

Sitting in the family's Wroughton kitchen, Liz Webster visibly bristles as she recalls events.

She said she was angry at the way Henry and her family had been treated by Ridgeway school bosses following the attack.

She also claimed Henry had previously been bullied at the school, and even assaulted by a pupil before the hammer incident "Henry was assaulted once before, while he was playing football. The school just told us to call the police," she said.

"A teacher said well, he did tackle the boy rather hard' as if he was asking for it. Almost as if that teacher was trying to justify the violence.

"Really no violence in schools should be accepted. Henry was concussed. But the boy responsible for the attack was just suspended for two days.

"After the assault last time, I said to them what do they have to do to get a serious punishment?' "When I turned up on the tennis courts I said to the teacher I told you something like this was going to happen'.

"Because of Henry's lack of action the first time, I said to Henry if anybody picks on you, you have to stand up for yourself'.

"So when a kid picked on him again he just stood up for himself. He didn't have any trust in the teachers sorting it out.

"He just thought if he didn't go to the tennis courts they would just keep picking on him again and again.

"Even when Henry was playing rugby he was always being told to be more aggressive."

The distraught mum said the attack on Henry had torn her family's lives apart, but she felt school staff had been unsympathetic to their situation.

"Those teachers knew Henry since he was 11. They should be saying we are sorry'," she said.

"After it first happened I felt sorry for the head, Steve Colledge.

"But he should have just admitted he didn't know how to help my son.

"I thought I was sending my son to school to somewhere safe.

"The defendants really should have been identified by the school as part of a gang.

"I'm not racist. I don't blame the Asian community. I blame the school. I think the school let these boys down.

"I feel that their families have been through as much trauma from all this as us.

"All the school had to do was offer us some kindness and support. I wasn't asking that they move the earth."

Liz claimed school bosses did not take effective action after Henry was previously bullied.

"On that day, after the incident in the corridor, Henry was sent to see a teacher. Henry tells me he went to his office and reported the names of all the boys that had been picking on him.

"As far as we are aware that teacher never spoke to those kids.

"Mr Colledge said he was going to get the teachers to provide work for Henry to do to get him through his GCSEs.

"He said teachers were going to come and see him with work.

"Not one teacher came to see him. The governors bought Henry an Xbox, which was a bit weird.

"I was worried about Henry becoming isolated. I asked Mr Colledge to bus some children up here to see him at lunch times.

"He did it a couple of times but then he said he couldn't keep paying for that. I tried to take Henry down there instead once.

"I asked for them just to find a room so Henry could see some of his friends. But when we got down there nothing had been sorted out. One teacher was really unkind and rude. He said to Henry no one's bothered about seeing you'.

Liz said she believed the gang of pupils responsible for the attack on Henry had been allowed to get out of control.

"I don't think they have dealt with any behaviour issues adequately.

"Those boys were allowed to become a gang because they did not want to seem racist by disciplining them."

Ridgeway School governor Robert Buckland said: "Mrs Webster has made a formal complaint to the school about these matters.

"That complaint was put on hold pending resolution of the criminal proceedings and now it is proposed to set down a timetable for the hearing of that complaint at the earliest mutually convenient opportunity.

"The governing body takes Mrs Webster's complaint very seriously indeed. The governing body would like to thank the police and CPS for ensuring that Henry's attackers were brought to justice.

"On behalf of the governing body I would also like to convey our very best wishes to Henry and his family, who have undergone a terrible ordeal."