The headteacher at the centre of a row over LGBT equality teachings in schools told a court there had been 333% rise in homophobic attacks in a part of Birmingham, blaming the surge on protests outside her school.

Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, who was subjected to almost six hours of cross-examination, made the remarks during the second day of a hearing to rule whether an exclusion zone around Anderton Park primary school banning protests should be made permanent.

The school, in the Sparkhill area of the city, has become the focus of a long campaign to halt LGBT equality messages being taught in the classroom. Birmingham city council launched court action in an attempt to prevent more protests outside the school.

Hewitt-Clarkson said Birmingham East – the area in which the school is located – had seen a significant rise in homophobic hate crimes. Citing figures released by West Midlands police under a freedom of information request, she said there had been six incidents in March 2018. In the following March – the same months the protests began – this figure rose to 26, a 333% increase.

“There was a huge rise in homophobic attacks … some of the behaviour outside the school has legitimised those attacks,” she said.

The protesters’ lawyer, Ramby De Mello, suggested to Hewitt-Clarkson that she had deliberately tried to suggest that protesting parents were “extremists”, and asked about her conversations with counter-extremism chief, Sara Khan.

In her first major report, Khan, who leads the Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), said Islamist extremists exploited tensions over equality teaching in Birmingham schools to amplify hate against LGBT people.

The report, titled Challenging Hateful Extremism, said anti-LGBT protests held outside two primary schools in the city were being stoked by individuals seeking to foster division.

Hewitt-Clarkson admitted to meeting with Khan on a number of occasions but denied she had portrayed parents as extremists.

“She is the government lead on counter-extremism and she asked me about the events outside my school. What was happening outside my school was unprecedented and horrible. I feel that the situation has been exploited by one or two people who have used extreme language,” she said.

Hewitt-Clarkson went on to remark the school was made up of 94.6% South Asian heritage pupils – mainly of Pakistani Muslim backgrounds. However, she said she believed the majority of parents (85%) were supportive of equality teaching.

Meanwhile, Sophie Taylor, deputy director for due diligence and counter-extremism of the Department for Education, defended the government’s position on equality teaching during the hearing, saying the protests had been disruptive for pupils.

“It would be extremely difficult to run a school where individuals parents are pulling their children out based on specific aspects of what is being taught,” added Taylor, who told the court about a formal complaints procedure if parents wanted to opt out of particular lessons.

Later on the court was shown video footage taken by Claire Evans, deputy headteacher at Anderton Park primary.

The footage taken from inside the school nursery and the playground illustrated the level of noise from protests, which resumed after the summer holidays despite the injunction. On the recording, chants of “headteacher step down” were clearly audible.

Evans also told the court that some staff had been filmed by protesters and had been subjected to online abuse.

Meanwhile, an educational psychologist said the protests had directly attributed to a rise in stress levels among staff at the school. Amanda Daniels from Birmingham city council said teachers felt intimidated and that their “previously happy, contented community” had been disrupted.

“They wanted to do a good job in teaching the children but this was being made difficult because of the noise, and [they] were having difficulty delivering day to day lessons … They were feeling intimidated,” she added.

The temporary injunction bans Shakeel Afsar, his sister Rosina Afsar, who had two children at the school but has since removed them, and Amir Ahmed from coordinating protests outside the school. Separately, the Christian campaigner John Allman, who has joined the court action, said the temporary court ruling infringed his right to free speech.

A man who lived near the school and filmed some of the protests said demonstrators on megaphones compared those from the LGBT community to “dogs and paedophiles”. Tom Brown, who reported the issue to the police, said that, although the comment was not directed at him, it was “offensive”.

“If someone compares me to a dog for my sexuality then I am fairly sure that violates the Equality Act,” he added.

Brown was later recalled to the dock after claiming that one of the defendants made an offensive remark to him after he finished giving evidence.

Jonathan Manning QC asked Brown to explain. Brown indicated towards Allman, claiming he had whispered the word “fag” as he walked past.

Paul Diamond, representing Allman, suggested Brown had misheard. Brown denied this.

The hearing continues.