A head teacher who brandished a gun made of cardboard and pretended to shoot a target above a staff member’s head on a school stage was last night condemned by the mum of a seven-year-old boy left petrified by the performance.

Rashidah Butt, the head of Feversham Primary Academy in Harewood Street, Bradford Moor, was playing secret agent James Bond in an end-of-term Christmas school play yesterday.

But one upset parent said her actions left her son distressed and upset – coming only days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20 young children and six members of staff were shot dead by a gunman.

The mum, who lives in Bradford Moor, said: “The head teacher came on with the replica gun and pretended to shoot other staff members and my child came home very upset about it.

“There are things on the television about shooting in America and he is very upset about this.

“Apparently something was said about James Bond and 007 during this play.

“My son said, ‘This is so wrong mummy’ and it is wrong. I am very distressed and I think she should apologise and think it is terrible.”

The school recently became an academy after coming out of special measures imposed by schools’ watchdog Ofsted.

Mike Barnett, the spokesman for the Academies Enterprise Trust, the school’s employers, said that the performance, Abbarella, was part of the annual Cinderella pantomime and involved Mrs Butt stepping in at the last minute to play James Bond.

“She pushed away the Ugly Sisters with a piece of cardboard in the shape of a small gun and then aimed the cardboard gun at a paper target above a member of staff’s head,” Mr Barnett said.

“At no point was the cardboard gun targeted towards a child. Last year the part was played by a male member of staff.

“The general reaction from children was that they loved it and we would be surprised and very disappointed if a child was upset.

“We would say to play that role in the way she did at this time is inappropriate and with hindsight would not take that decision again.

“We can understand concerns and anxieties from anybody given the tragic situation which occurred just a few days ago.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for children’s services at Bradford Council, said that he agreed with Mr Barnett that it was an “unfortunate oversight”.

“Thinking about what is going on I am sure Mrs Butt didn’t intend to do that,” he said.

“It shows the sensitive world we are living in and the academy’s response seems to be appropriate.”

The Connecticut tragedy carried out by Adam Lanza, 20, who also killed himself, has sparked a national debate on gun laws in the US.