HAVING children at the Lantern Primary School, in Ely, we have always hoped that, as well as being well educated and cared for, that the staff outside of the education are equally as caring and kind.

However, this theory has recently been tested.

As any parent with a child at the Lantern knows, it is a “cashless” school. In short this means that everything from school dinners to sun hats has to be paid for online using a website called ParentPay.

Parentpay is very unfriendly, has frequent down time and is difficult to use on any type of smart phone.

Last week, we received a call from the school to state that the school dinner account was overdue - this was something we were aware of as we had tried several times that week to logon and pay but to no avail.

Whilst we admit that we were at fault for not having paid the account on time, we were shocked when the caller said that our five-year-old would be given “a bread roll and left overs from the kitchen” for lunch that day.

This has left me contemplating what sort of people the Lantern employs to work with their children.

Whether the comment was meant literally or not is beside the point. If it was intended, this makes me wonder what sort of a person would think it acceptable to give a five-year-old a bread roll and left overs for lunch and humiliate the child in doing so.

If however, this was not actually the intention, then likewise it makes me wonder who would threaten a parent with such excessive lengths.

Perhaps we have overreacted, but as a parent, to be told these words made me feel angry and incredibly upset.

DONNA

Via e-mail