Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
School has new playground just for the rich kids
Fury as pupils barred if they have not paid £6 fee
A PRIMARY school has provoked fury by creating separate so-called rich and poor playgrounds.
Pupils are segregated from classmates at lunchtimes if they have not paid a voluntary fee for new sports equipment.
Only those who have forked out £6 are allowed to use a playground where the bats, balls and skipping ropes are kept.
Furious mums and dads claim other children who have not paid have had their own footballs taken off them.
Just 80 of the 450 pupils at the school have handed over the £6.
The other 370 have to play in a separate playground without the new gear.
A teacher stands at the entrance to the ‘paying’ playground checking names on a clipboard at Wednesbury Oak Academy, Tipton, West Midlands. Angry mum-of-two Kirsty Williams, 28, said: “We were asked to make the payment before Christmas even though they had £9,000 for equipment. It is bullying really. They are separating the rich from the poor.”
Another mum said: “It’s disgusting. My daughter came home crying, saying she had to play in a different playground to her best friend.”
Kelly Jenns, 35, said: “My son has been split up from his best friend. Kids are literally looking through the railings at the other children playing with the new equipment.
“I’ve got the cash, I just don’t think I should be made to pay for a couple of tennis balls. I’m furious.” Seema Rana, 33, who has two kids there, said: “It’s so sad, because the school is excellent. I didn’t pay the money out of principle.” Head teacher Maria Bull said she was considering contacting police after receiving threats on social media.
She insisted all parents at the school, which has an outstanding Ofsted rating, could afford the fee.
She said: “It is not like the children haven’t got other equipment on the playground. It is being run as an extra, just like we run extra activities.
“We run all of this as a voluntary basis, as a lunchtime activity club. We are a school that bends over backwards for our parents.
“Parents have behaved in a highly threatening manner on Facebook, telling me I need a ‘good slapping’. That’s not the way to behave.
“I’m on the verge of calling the police.” She said the decision to buy sports equipment and ask for a donation was made by the school’s parent council.
They bought a football, rugby ball, a Slinky, two skipping ropes and some tennis balls and asked for a £6 donation from each parent.
But the Mirror understands three of the five parents on the council have resigned in protest at the segregation.
Parents have launched an online petition asking for the scheme to be discontinued. On it, mum Angela Moore wrote: “The parents that have paid and parents that haven’t are totally against the separation of the children. This can cause upset, bullying and social exclusion.”