Trinity Catholic College: No lunch for Middlesbrough pupils in arrears

Lee Garvey accused the school of putting "policies and procedures" ahead of pupil welfare

Lunches and bus travel at a school are being withheld from pupils whose families fall behind with payments.

Middlesbrough's Trinity Catholic College sent a letter to parents saying it would block food and travel where accounts were £20 or more in arrears.

The school, which runs its own food bank, said it was enforcing a "new procedure regarding debt management".

Parent Lee Garvey said: "Did Jesus ask for payment upfront when he was feeding the 5,000?"

The letter from the school said those behind with payments needed to provide children with packed lunches "until the debt has been paid off".

It also said those whose transport accounts were not up to date must make alternative arrangements as their children would be refused entry to buses.

Mr Garvey is a former vice chair of Middlesbrough Council and sends his child to Trinity Catholic College.

He has called on the school to reconsider its approach, saying it risked disadvantaging families already struggling to make ends meet in a cost-of-living crisis.

Middlesbrough's Trinity Catholic College and Sixth Form is withholding lunches from children whose families are in arrears

He said: "I'm not sure how the school can justify this - they go knocking on doors to make sure children are OK if they're absent, yet they're going to let them potentially go hungry if they don't have money.

"How can they claim to have a child's best interests at heart when they're telling them they are not eating today because their parents forgot to top up their account or, worse, cannot afford to top it up?

"We are at the point where working parents will suffer because of this policy, those who are on the cusp of not being able to pay their bills yet are not eligible for free school meals.

"And I don't understand, when they're so keen on improving attendance, saying children potentially can't go to school because their parents can't afford the bus pass.

"How have we come to this, in this day and age?

"This is supposed to be a Catholic school that's saying they won't feed kids if their parents can't pay - did Jesus ask for payment upfront when he was feeding the 5,000?"

'Deeply concerning'

The director of the North East Child Poverty Commission, Amanda Bailey, urged schools and colleges not to follow in the footsteps of Trinity when thousands of children in the region live in poverty.

She said families on low incomes had already been hit hard by soaring household bills, with growing numbers of parents and carers getting into debt to pay essential school-related costs.

Describing this as "deeply concerning", she said many struggling families were ineligible for free school meals and called for an expansion of the scheme to incorporate all children whose families received Universal Credit.

Ms Bailey said schools should not be put in the "invidious position" of having to plug gaps in national policy, adding: "All schools and colleges are facing huge budgetary pressures - a situation which we know is being made worse by many across the region now having to support their students to meet their basic needs on a daily basis."

Trinity Catholic College and Sixth Form is run by the Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust, which refused to respond to requests for comment.

The academy school has a free breakfast club for pupils and, according to its Facebook page, also runs a food bank and pre-loved uniform shop.

On Trinity's website, head Andy Rodgers said its Catholic foundation and ethos was "central" to everything the school did.

He said: "Our mission is simple yet powerful; we follow Jesus, build our family and, in turn, fulfil our potential.

"At Trinity, a special value is placed on love and forgiveness, which encourages relationships based on trust, kindness, self-respect and care for those in need."

According to its most recent Ofsted inspection, the school was judged as requiring improvement.

A Department for Education spokesman said access to free school meals had been extended several times since 2010, resulting in the doubling of the number of children receiving them.

She added that benefits had been raised in line with inflation and that the National Minimum Wage had increased recently.

The Vatican has been approached for comment.