Police are investigating claims a taxi driver assaulted the head teacher of a city primary school.

Officers were alerted to reports of an incident outside St Stephen’s Junior School on Friday morning.

School head, Stuart Pywell, claims his phone was knocked out of his hand by a cabbie he had tried to take a photograph during a confrontation.

The alleged assault happened as hundreds of children were arriving at the school in Hales Drive shortly before 9am.

Mr Pywell said: “A taxi had pulled into the school entrance and was reversing out and going up the kerb. There were obviously lots of children about and I was concerned for their safety.”

He says he then knocked on the roof of the car to alert the driver, but as he tried to photograph him and the vehicle, the cabbie knocked his iPhone out of his hand.

He added: “I have notified the police of the incident because I think they need to have a word with him.”

Police spokesman, Amanda Wills, said: “We are currently investigating a report of an assault outside a school in Hales Drive, Canterbury, between 8.40am and 8.50am on Friday, February 26.”

The day before the alleged incident the Gazette reported how Mr Pywell had been sworn at during regular angry confrontations between parents over parking issues outside the school.

He told how parents blocked driveways, refused to move for other traffic and parked on zig-zag lines, causing a “twice-daily headache” for school staff.

He said: “These days parents are more likely to tell you where to go than do the right thing.”