An outraged mum has been left fuming after a school excluded her young daughter from a Christmas disco for the “best students”. The mum, who wished not to be named, has said her 12-year-old daughter was barred from a school disco at St Wilfrid’s C of E Academy in Blackburn, Lancashire because she was not among the “best 50 children” in her year.
The school had organised a series of “reward events” for top-performing pupils over the pre-Christmas term, reserved exclusively for those who had “no detentions and at least 95 percent attendance”.
Year eights, her daughters year group, received a school disco held on Monday, December 18, with other rewards including a Christmas party and ten-pin bowling.
But the mum said her daughter was not allowed to attend the event because she had a less-than-sparkling school record.
Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, she said her daughter explained that only the “best 50 children” of the 120 in each year group were invited to the events.
She was left “extremely upset”, as her friends spoke excitedly about attending the disco.
The mum called the decision to exclude less-than-perfect students “divisive” and “Scrooge-like”, with her daughter boasting an attendance rate of 100 percent.
The youngster was excluded because she had the “odd detention” for missing her homework.
The mum said: “Her attendance is 100 percent, but she has had the odd detention for missed homework which she really struggles with.
“It seems very mean-spirited and Scrooge-like to ban 12-year-old children from a Christmas party just because they have had detentions (didn’t we all?) or have been too ill to attend.
“It is not, in my view, very Christian nor in the spirit of Christmas. All children, some of whom may be extremely disadvantaged, deserved to be invited and join in the fun. It’s not just Year 8 but all year groups.”
The school has defended its decision, with Nathan Ashman, St Wilfrid’s assistant principal, saying over 300 key stage three students met the “rewards and incentives”criteria and that every student participated in some form of Christmas celebration this year.
He said: “We presented many more certificates to celebrate our students’ high attendance, academic excellence, academic endeavour, and academy service to students across the academy.
“At the end of term, Students at St Wilfrid’s Church of England Academy, have also taken part in the annual nine lessons and carols service, a Christmas jumper day, Christmas lunch, celebrations assemblies and we are looking forward to our traditional house pantomimes on Thursday.
“We appreciate that this is a challenging time of year for many families and during our December month of hope, the school community has packed and delivered 50 hampers to local families, written positive messages of hope, and collected and contributed thousands of items to our local food bank.
“We are extremely proud of all that our students have achieved and have enjoyed celebrating their success.”
