A dad has claimed his daughter was attacked by a deputy headteacher’s pet dog in Dreghorn Primary.

George Clark says his daughter, Ava, five, was left with marks on her face after the dog became aggressive during a meeting between him and the deputy headteacher to discuss the child’s epilepsy medication.

Mr Clark says the woman had been bringing her dog into school every day for “over a year”.

Education bosses say the animal is a “reading dog”, brought into the school to encourage children to read more.

Mr Clark says he asked for proof of the dog’s specialist training but the school has failed to provide it.

He says the school has “serious safety issues” and claims just last Monday Ava walked out of the school at 2.50pm unaccompanied.

He said: “Ava was bitten by the deputy head teacher’s dog in May. I was in the office for a meeting with her and Ava was sitting on the floor clapping the dog and the next thing I knew it was snarling then was on her. She wasn’t badly hurt thankfully, but she was totally traumatised. We took her to A&E to make sure she didn’t need any jags because it broke the skin.

“We spoke to the school and they assured us that the dog would not be back in the school, so we didn’t take it further, but have since found out that the dog has been back.

“Just last week Ava wandered out the school. She had to walk past the office staff to leave the building and no one asked why a five-year-old was heading out the door on her own. It was just pure luck I happened to be early that day.”

Education bosses admit there was an incident involving Ava and the dog but refute claims that the dog bit her.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “The ‘reading dog’ was brought in to help the confidence of the young people. The proper safety checks and risk assessments were carried out by the school and approved by our Education department.

“We would like to assure all parents/carers that the safety and wellbeing of children is our absolute priority. We don’t comment on individual cases but matters brought to our attention are always fully investigated.”

Ayrshire Police confirmed they had received a report of a dog biting a child at the school.