Gospel Oak headteacher John Hayes speaking at last week’s council meeting

AFFLUENT parents are helping to make sure no children miss out on school trips by meeting the costs for those unable to pay, a headteacher has told a council meeting.

John Hayes at Gospel Oak Primary School in Mansfield Road said that families “on and below the poverty line” were now regularly using a food bank in the school.

He said the school had pupils from a mix of backgrounds but they were coming together amid the cost-of-living crisis.

“We want to continue with all the broad and balanced curriculum that we offer– and that includes trips, which do cost money,” he told councillors.

“When we do have to ask parents to contribute, we now in our online system will ask some parents if they’d like to donate the cost of the trip for another child who might not otherwise be able to afford it, and regularly they do and in that way every child gets to go on that trip.”

He added:  “Our rite of passage is our residential Year 6 journey. It’s very expensive. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the children to access a whole range of outdoor pursuits, but because it’s so expensive we’ve had to ask our community to support us with a hardship fund and I now routinely have parents who come to talk to me about what they think they can offer and we then make up the rest.”

Mr Hayes, who said he was looking at his own “exit strategy” from teaching, said: “I’ve been working in education for over 35 years, and I never expected that at this point in my career that we’d have to set up a food bank in our school for our parents.

“We now have just over 20 families who will regularly come into school to access the food bank.”

Again this service was relying on the generosity of parents with the means to assist, he explained “The way that we replenish it is that other families will often just send us supermarket deliveries. They put together a shopping list order and get it delivered to the school and then we can restock.”

Mr Hayes also warned that school’s own running costs were outstripping funding from government. “I am having to look at further job losses,” he said. I’ve lost eight members of staff in the last two years.”