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A PRIMARY school claims it is so short of cash that it has asked its pupils to bring in their own toilet rolls.
Parents were sent a letter inviting the pupils to donate essential supplies instead of money for a nonuniform day held yesterday.
Faced with cutbacks, the school also suggested that youngsters could bring in other items including pencils, Sellotape and envelopes.
The letter by Laura Cooper, headmistress of St John’s Primary School in Crowborough, East Sussex, said: ‘We will be holding a non-uniform day on Thursday – instead of donating money we would like the children to bring in various “essential” items such as stationery (glue sticks, pencils, Blu-Tack, boxes of tissues, Sellotape) and of course loo rolls!’
Mrs Cooper had earlier written to families warning: ‘The cost of resources such as toilet rolls now has to be rigorously monitored alongside the progress and achievement of the pupils.’
The school, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, has 210 pupils and was praised for ‘a very strong family-orientated culture’.
The Church of England primary received about £500-worth of goods after the plea, with parents stacking packs of loo roll on trestle tables outside.
Mrs Cooper, who has been head for 13 years, said: ‘The parents have been really supportive with children bringing in things.
‘We are not needing to spend money on those items and can direct money into specialist areas. We can enhance extracurricular activities.
‘We don’t charge for after-school clubs because we want things to be inclusive, we run a lot of things on the goodwill of staff, but there are cost implications for the trans- portation of children to tournaments and competitions.’ She added: ‘I have been here quite a long time.
‘For me it is a shame that it has got like this. I just think it is really hard doing the job we are expected to do. There are different grants being removed, we have children with mental health problems and all these services have been removed from the local authority.
‘The school are having to provide them as well as teaching the children.’ Chairman of the governors, Jason Sadler, said: ‘Everyone has been shocked, it’s not just “poor St John’s”, it is all schools – real-term cuts are causing a massive problem. I think a lot of parents aren’t aware. ‘It is designed to really shock people, to remind them that loo rolls and soap don’t just appear in the toilets, they have to be paid for.’ Yesterday Nick Harvey took his sons Felix, eight, and Leo, five, to the school armed with packs of toilet paper. He said: ‘ I was shocked when I got the letter. Without resources, without toilet rolls, pencils, glue sticks, paper, our children can’t be educated. Recently the school was fundraising for a Third World school, for similar things.
‘I would rather my children had a well-rounded education with extra- curricular activities than had to blow their noses on the carpet. We can’t continue like this.’
‘I was shocked when I got the letter’