IT'S every parent's worst nightmare.

You send your child off to school assuming that they will be in a safe environment, but today a 12-year-old Hampshire school pupil was recovering after being stabbed in the face by another youngster in what police are describing as a completely unprovoked assault.

The incident happened yesterday in the grounds of Eastleigh's Alderman Quilley School during morning break. However, it was no playground quarrel between fellow pupils.

The young attacker, also believed to be aged about 12, had gone into the Cherbourg Road campus from outside, carried out the assault and then rode off on a BMX bike.

Luckily the injured pupil - who police are not naming - suffered only minor injuries.

Det Con Nikke Lewis said the victim had been stabbed and cut above the eye. She added: "The injuries are minor. They are not serious or life-threatening."

She said the 12-year-old had been taken to hospital and was with his parents.

She added: "The offender is also a youth. Various witnesses from the school saw the incident and the suspect rode off on a BMX bike out of the school with the knife."

Police immediately launched a hunt for the attacker. Det Con Lewis said: "We have an idea as to who committed this assault. We believe that the culprit will be found and detained as soon as possible. He came into the school grounds and he is not a pupil of the school. He is also about 12 years of age and, as far as we know, it was a completely unprovoked assault."

If yesterday's attack was a parent's nightmare, the incident also proved a baptism of fire for new head teacher Richard Kelly who, at 38, is one of the youngest school bosses in the country.

He took over the reins at the school, which has 658 pupils, at the beginning of this month. He arrived after 16 years at Applemore College in Dibden Purlieu, where he was deputy head. He said: "We are currently taking advice from the police. Because the injury was not serious I am not in a state of shock. But I amconcerned that it happened."

He told the Daily Echo that he would be undertaking a detailed review of security at the school with governors and senior staff.

He added: "I have already told all parents that is what we will be doing."

Asked what could be done at the site, which the head teacher described as "quite large and quite open," Mr Kelly said: "I need to look at it with the governors. I am just getting to know the site myself."

He said he did not know how the attacker had got into the school but added: "It worries me that there are people in society that do carry implements around that they can attack people with. It is quite appalling that they would go and do that."

Some schools in the United States go for extreme security measures such as metal detectors, patrolling police officers, security cameras, picture IDs for staff and pupils and adding hi-tech hardware to traditional lock and alarm systems.

Following the Eastleigh incident, national executive member for the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers Ron Clooney said: "What it basically shows is what we have been saying for a long time - that security in schools needs to be stepped up."

Mr Clooney, whose area covers Hampshire and Southampton, added: "People should not be able to enter school premises at will at any particular time."

He said it was a "sad fact of life" that a knife-carrying culture had become more prevalent and more and more youngsters were carrying weapons.

"We believe that children themselves should be subjected to spot checks on school premises. Security needs to be stepped up in places where children need to be protected."

Asked if it was time to introduce security guards in schools, he said: "In certain schools it may well be.

"All schools need to have 15ft-high fences around them and they should have a secure reception area which is the only designated area where people can enter the premises.

"There are schools in London that do have security andpolice walking around them. If these incidents continue we will be in the same situation down here."

Alderman Quilley School is maintained by Hampshire County Council.

No one was available for comment on yesterday's incident or general school security issues.