A WOMAN who took her daughter out of school rather than make her remove her nose piercing has hit out at teachers for not giving her work to do at home.

Louise Mcnamara has said Oxford Academy is stopping her 15-year-old daughter Shannon Irving from getting the same education as her classmates.

The academy, meanwhile, insists it was happy to educate Shannon in isolation at school and warned that Ms Mcnamara faces prosecution if she keeps her daughter at home.

The row centres around a tiny nose stud, just a few millimetres across, which is banned under school rules.

Shannon, who lives with her mum in Acacia Avenue, Greater Leys, got the piercing on Saturday as an early present for her 16th birthday in December.

Although she knew there were rules against facial piercings, she says other girls in Year 11 get away with small studs.

As soon as she arrived at school on Monday morning, her head of year spotted the stud and hauled her out of classes.

The teacher phoned Ms Mcnamara and explained that Shannon would not be allowed to attend normal lessons with the stud in, but if she refused to take it out she would be educated in isolation, getting the same work as her classmates, until she agreed to do take it out.

Ms Mcnamara, however, refused to let her daughter be shut in isolation for the eight weeks that Shannon has been told she needs to keep the stud in, because she saw it as an unfair punishment, and Shannon went home.

Now she and the school are in a stale mate, but Ms Mcnamara says the academy could resolve the situation if they would just give Shannon her school work to take home.

She told the Oxford Mail: “They have said they will not give her any work.

“She needs work because it’s her final year and she’s taking mock GCSE exams in the next few weeks.

“I do sympathise with the need for rules, but there are girls walking around with ear studs bigger than her nose stud and girls with eyebrow piercings.”

Shannon said she was annoyed with the situation and insisted she wanted to get on her with school work.

Oxford Academy deputy headteacher Sally Elliott said that Shannon, having been at the school for five years, knew full well there were rules against certain piercings.

She said: “Ms Mcnamara asked us to send Shannon home with eight weeks’ worth of work and we wouldn’t authorise a student being off for that period of time, so we said ‘we expect her in school’.

“If she is unable to take the stud out she will be isolated from the rest of the school but she’ll be able to do her work.

“Anyone we spot with unauthorised piercings will be dealt with in the same way.”

The school’s actual policy on piercings states that students are allowed to have one small stud in each ear, a watch, and no other jewellery should be worn.

Ms Elliott said: “It helps students not get distracted from their education and helps them learn that there are rules in life. Shannon has been here five years: we’ve never allowed nasal piercings before and we’re not going to allow them now.”