Primary school charges pupil's mother 20p for broken pencil - 'It's ridiculous'

The mother of a 10-year-old boy has said she was left shocked after receiving a letter from his school charging her 20p for a pencil.

Louise Owen said the letter outlined her son, Lennie-Lee, had broken "school equipment" and asked her to pay 20p as soon as possible.

Owen, 32, has described the demand from Lawn Primary School in Northfleet, Kent as ridiculous.

"When he first came in I said 'What have you done now, Lennie?", she said. "But he didn't have a clue and didn't even mention the pencil.

"The first thing he said to me was that he was kicking a football in the playground and the ball went over the fence, so he'd automatically thought this letter was about losing the ball.

"I couldn't believe what the letter said – I thought it was ridiculous."

Read more: Farmers 'buried under tsunami of cabbages' as vegetables grow too quickly

The letter, from Lennie's class teacher, read: "Unfortunately, your child broke a school pencil on November 2, 2022. This is school equipment which now needs to be replaced.

"Would you kindly pay the value of £0.20 to the school as soon as possible?"

Lennie, who is in Year Six, has additional needs, ADHD and autism, which means the school gets extra funding specifically for him.

Owen said she has no intention of paying the 20p, saying it "comes down to the principle of it".

"It would have cost them more to write the letter and I just can't get my head around it," she said.

"It isn't even about the 20p, it's the fact they've given my son a letter to bring home saying they want it as soon as possible."

She suggested it would have been more productive for her son to be given a short detention to help him understand what he had done wrong.

When she phoned the school the next day, she said she was told that multiple children had been given the same letter, but said she was still waiting for someone to call her back about the issue.

She added: "I don't agree with what he did and I've sat him down and told him not to break things that don't belong to him, but the amount of pencils that probably get broken on a daily basis by kids, either purposefully or accidentally, must be loads.

"The thing is, Lennie has a pencil case full of pencils and pens but he's not allowed to take it in because of Covid.

"If he was constantly doing it then I could probably understand but it's not a reoccurring thing."

Lawn Primary School said it does not wish to comment.