A FIVE-YEAR-OLD girl was able to leave her school unnoticed and walk home alone because of an open gate, her mother said last night.

Jodie Williams had to cross a busy road during the three-quarters of a mile journey from Alderman Leach Primary School, in Darlington, at lunchtime yesterday.

Her mother, Hayley, 25, said she was shocked when she got a message to say her daughter had been found outside their home by a neighbour.

"The thought that someone could have taken her is what scares me most," she said. "I have explained to her how naughty she has been, but she shouldn't have been able to get out of the school.

"It's scary to think it takes my daughter to walk home by herself for them to realise there is something wrong with the security."

Miss Williams, who was out shopping, thinks her daughter's journey began at about 12.15pm after a playground tiff with a friend.

"She ran away because she was upset. She told me the school gate was open - not even just unlocked, but open - and she just ran out.

"My next-door neighbour saw her picking leaves off a bush outside our house at 1pm.

"It's just awful to think of her doing that journey across a busy main road on her own and then getting home and me not being in."

The single mother, who also has an eight-year-old son, Kyle, said she was reluctant to take Jodie back to school.

"She probably will be back at school tomorrow because I don't want her to think if she runs away she gets time off but I will be very anxious," she said.

A Local Education Authority spokesman said the school would carry out a thorough investigation.

"The school takes this matter very seriously," he said. "Security measures at the school are tried and tested and anything like this has never happened before, but clearly once is one time too many.

"We will find out exactly what went wrong with the system and we'll put in place whatever measures are necessary to make sure that anything like this cannot happen again."