School criticised over prom ticket allocation

Parents have criticised the way a school has allocated prom tickets, saying it is "cruel" and puts extra pressure on children.

Some pupils at Kepier Academy, in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, have not been invited to the school prom because their attendance is too low or they have fallen behind with homework.

But their parents say health issues or struggles with school work have not been taken into .

The school is part of the Eden Learning Trust which has been approached for a comment.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said: "I understand if they are really badly behaved, but half of these kids are not badly behaved.

"It's because they've struggled to manage their homework or they've struggled with school life.

"I think they [the school] are a disgrace.

"It's just cruel."

Schools commonly have rules for proms which make ittance conditional on meeting set levels of attendance or standards of behaviour.

Kepier's event is due to take place on 26 June with at least 30 teenagers not permitted to attend, the BBC understands.

Parents said it was "disgraceful" as they had also not been able to go to a leavers' assembly at primary school because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One mother said her daughter was well-behaved and had good attendance but had difficulty keeping up with homework after struggling with her mental health and was now feeling "isolated" and "left out".

"My daughter came home from school crying her eyes out feeling she wasn't worthy," she said.

"It broke her heart."

A class chart penalised students too harshly, sometimes taking away points for forgetting a pen or a ruler, she added.

"The kids have been on yo-yos all the way through because they knew they had to get these behavioural points to get to proms," she said.

"This has been extra pressure on top of the children."

Other students were stopped from going to the prom because of low attendance, which their parents said was due to health issues.

Another parent, Miss Peterson, who asked for her first name not to be used, said her daughter missed out on a ticket after her attendance dropped when she was unwell.

"I think it's disgraceful with all the other children who want to go to prom and can't," she said.

"These are the kids who didn't have leavers' assemblies at primary school because of Covid and now the school's taken away the prom from them."

Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.