A woman charged with hitting her son at a parents evening has been cleared of assault.

The 11-year-old boy’s teacher told a court his mother had left him “in hysterics” after slapping him across his face when she discovered they were late for an appointment.

But the mother’s lawyer said his client, who denied the charge, had just grabbed the child by his blazer and told him off.

Finding the woman not guilty, the bench at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court said they did believe the mother struck her son - but thought the force of the blow did not go beyond the level of reasonable chastisement allowed in law.

The names of the mother, child and school cannot be published for legal reasons.

The incident happened at about 5pm on October 1 last year, when the boy arrived at his secondary school with his mother for a parents evening meeting.

At the trial on March 26, the court was told the pair were about 30 minutes late for their appointment - apparently because the child had given his mother the wrong time.

The boy’s form tutor told the court she was alone in the classroom where the meeting was to take place when she saw the pair standing in a doorway a few metres away.

She said the mother struck her son across the face with a “medium-to-hard” hit.

The teacher said the boy went running to the corner of the room and was crying in hysterics, and said his mother glared at her for the rest of the meeting.

But the mother denied hitting the boy.

She said she felt “bad, bad, bad” when she realised she was late for the meeting and shouted at her son.

Her lawyer said the boy had run around the classroom crying because he was “having a hissy fit” after being grabbed by the collar and told off for bad behaviour.

The teacher reported the mother to the school’s child protection officer the following day and she was charged by the police on December 22.