A primary school has closed early for Christmas in a row with parents who staged a pro-Palestinian protest at its gates.

Barclay Primary School in Leyton, east London, faced hundreds of protesters waving Palestine flags and placards demanding “freedom” on Thursday morning after a TikTok video made a rallying cry.

The school said it had shut two days early until next term “in the light of escalating threats against staff and the school, based on malicious fabrications” from Left-wing media outlets and criticised “threatening and completely unacceptable conduct”.

The protesting parents have claimed that their children had been unable to show solidarity with Gaza whilst in school, such as on a non-school uniform day for Children In Need.

At the centre of the angry scenes has been a claim that an eight-year-old pupil was ostracised after wearing a Palestine badge on his coat, but the school said, “no evidence to support any allegations of bullying or misconduct has been found through either an external or internal investigation”.

The school has denied the allegations, saying “It is very unfortunate and distressing that this misinformation is being used to target a primary school”.

Some on social media have cited an apparent letter from the school warning that “inappropriate comments made at school or demonstrated at school including extremist or divisive comments can and will lead to formal meetings with the school, referrals to the Prevent Team or the Hate Crime Team in Waltham Forest”.

The school said in a statement it has “never reported anyone to Prevent at the school”, though is “bound by our legal duty under Prevent”.

One man who was protesting, who was not named, told Sky News: “The school had a massive Ukrainian flag outside and promoted the fact that they were supporting Ukraine.

“We have a situation today where Israel is attacking Gaza, it has been publicised and recorded by Amnesty International and the United Nations that Israel has been committing war crimes.

“Why is it that they’re not allowing an eight-year-old child to wear the badge of his homeland, his heritage?”

Another protester, a woman wearing a keffiyeh scarf, said: “This is where the whole debate for [the eight-year-old child] starts is that he is Palestinian and the badge is his cultural and religious identity, and that is why everyone is so enraged about it.”

Barclay Primary School is one of ten schools in the Lion Academy Trust which has more than 4,500 pupils and 48 languages spoken across its intake. Almost half of the Trust’s pupils have English as an additional language and 30 per cent qualify for free school meals.

The school added in a statement: “All parents - from all the communities we serve - have been the happy recipients of how the school’s policies and practices have been operating.

“The overwhelming majority of families and pupils who have welcomed their time at Barclay Primary are now being directly impacted by the actions of a misdirected and misinformed few, seeking to disrupt a primary school from exercising its proper function to educate children.”

It said it had the support of the Department for Education, Ofsted and the police and “will take any and all necessary steps to protect our pupils, staff and values”.