Children at a Brockley school are fainting and having seizures and parents are concerned the school are not taking the issue seriously.

Two parents who each have children at Prendergast Hilly Fields College, an all girls' school, have contacted News Shopper with accounts of how their daughters recently started having non-epileptic seizures and claim that there are others there with similar symptoms.

Thirteen-year-old Holly is one of the students who recently started experiencing the seizures, and her mum doesn’t feel the school has given her concerns enough attention.

Laura Wilson, Holly’s mum, said the seizures started in July this year and have prompted her to start looking for helmets for her daughter because she has hit her head.

Laura said: “My daughter’s safety is the priority, they should take it more seriously, especially when kids are hitting their head.

“I'm afraid I will receive a phone call one day saying she is dead because she hit her head.

“I haven’t ever experienced anything like this before. It’s like the plague.”

The seizures, caused by non-epileptic seizure disorder, look like epileptic seizures but have a different root cause and are likely to be the brain’s response to overwhelming stress, it's believed.

A spokesperson from FND Action charity said: “In the same way that a computer may freeze if you open too many windows, the brain uses it as a way to shut down when it is overloaded.

“It is important to stress that the attacks are very real. The person having them is not faking and is not able to stop them.”

Another parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said doctors told them her condition is likely being made worse while at school.

She said: “It’s been an issue for most of the year but there is a lot of ignorance for how the girls should be treated. My daughter was accused of faking her faints.

“There is a lot of avoidance and I wish and hope that they wake up one day and the problem no longer exists. There are girls in there dropping like flies.

“At sports day in July and there were four to five girls at any one time who had fainted. I feel their health and wellbeing was not considered.

“I knew it was a problem before sports day but there I saw that it was a real problem and they managed it really badly, they thought a lot of people were putting on the seizures.”

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “Prendergast School works with parents to make sure the children are properly cared for in the school day.

“In a school of over 900 pupils there are a wide range of medical diagnoses and these are all covered by individual health care plans for each child.”