Playground segregation!
Fury after head only allows pupils who have paid £6 to use new toys
A PRIMARY school has dropped a ‘no-pay, no play’ breaktime policy after a backlash from parents.
Pupils were segregated over lunch if their families had not paid a voluntary donation towards sports equipment.
Only children whose parents had handed over £6 were allowed to use a playground with a bag of new equipment including bats, balls and skipping ropes.
Furious parents set up an online petition demanding an end to the policy, which they said had caused ‘outright disgust’.
They accused the headmistress of segregating children into ‘paid’ and ‘unpaid’ groups.
The petition, set up by parents of children at Wednesbury Oak Academy in Tipton, West Midlands, said the policy could foster ‘upset, bullying and social exclusion’.
It read: ‘The parents that have paid and parents that haven’t are totally against the separation of the children as this can cause
Petition: The playground at Wednesbury Oak Academy upset, bullying and social exclusion she said. But in a statement yesterday, amongst other things.’ after a wave of criticism,
The school’s headmistress, the school governors said: ‘We Maria Bull, initially defended the have listened to the concerns policy and said she was on the raised and will be ending the verge of calling the police because scheme with immediate effect.’ she had received threats on social One parent at the school, media. She claimed parents had mother-of-two Kirsty Williams, 28, told her she needed a ‘good slapping’ said: ‘We were asked to make the over the decision. payment before Christmas but it
‘It is not like the children haven’t was voluntary. It was a voluntary got other equipment on the playground. payment for sports equipment It is being run as an extra, even though they had £9,000 for just like we run extra activities,’ equipment. It is bullying really – they are separating the rich from the poor.’ It is understood that only 80 of 450 pupils had paid towards the extra equipment.
Last night, the petition on Change.org had been signed by more than 1,500 people. It claimed it was the headmistress’s idea to fund a ‘fun time lunchtime’ bag of play equipment for pupils.
The parent council had suggested funds should be raised via fairs, own-clothes days and afterschool discos.
The petition stated: ‘The parent council were not at all happy with that idea, as this would be social and financial discrimination.
‘They all agreed that however much money was raised per class ALL children would get to play.’