Barred from after school club for not being on benefits
THE parents of a six-year-old boy say he’s been banned from joining after- school clubs for maths and reading because they aren’t on benefits.
Cara McCormick, 25, tried to sign her son Thomas up for reading, maths, computer and homework clubs at the Oliver Tomkins School in Swindon.
But she says he wasn’t allowed to take part because she and her fiance Steve Booth, 44, don’t claim benefits.
‘Last year he went to football club and other clubs,’ Mr Booth said.
‘This year we put him down for four separate clubs but my partner got told that because we were not on benefits he could not go. He is a bright lad and we just want him to get the best opportunities. It is bizarre.’
Miss McCormick said she was encouraged to sign Thomas up for the sessions at the school but received a call telling her he wasn’t eligible.
‘I was quite taken aback,’ she said. ‘If you want the best for your children and they are offering these clubs, what is the difference? It should be for all children. I thought those children would need it more because the parents tend to work long hours and don’t always have the time to sit down with their children.
‘I feel there is discrimination.’ She said her friend’s grandchild was told the same thing and that it was unfair because working people also struggled to keep their children’s education up to standard.
Mr Booth, a qualified careers officer and former policeman, is retraining as a gas engineer.
He said: ‘Life has to be about opportunity and Thomas should have an opportunity. How can you penalise working families and their children?’
had Head written Rhian to Cockwell Thomas’s said parents she to explain the school’s position, adding that there had been ‘a bit of confusion’. ‘We run two or three clubs each week specifically for students on pupil premium – the same students who meet the criteria for free school meals,’ she said. ‘We get allocated a budget from the Government each year which we have to allocate to pupil premium.
‘Unfortunately what happened was that Thomas must have seen a couple of clubs on the list that he liked the look of, and not realised they were pupil premium clubs.’