The angry parents of pupils at a school have organised a prom for leavers after the celebrations were cancelled due to a lack of deposits.
Three parents were involved in planning the end of year event for the Year 11 students at George's School in Blackpool.
Kelly Sinclair, 43, and Jeanette Burton were two of three parents who took to organise the memorable day, after they found out their children would not be celebrating the end of their GCSE 's with a traditional prom.
The cancellation, the school have said, was not only due to a lack in paid deposits, but also the pupil's expressing that they were "no longer interested," report LancsLive.
Parents of St George's class of 2022 said they made the decision to organise the prom themselves as a 'f*** off' to the school.
By doing everything themselves, this allowed them to offer low-income families the lifeline of having their ticket covered following kind donations from the community.
Kelly told LancsLive that the school's decision to cancel the prom is "shameful", adding: "The school has prom every year normally. They didn't have prom through Covid, neither did any of the schools, this is the first year back obviously that have done their GCSEs after Covid. All the schools were putting prom on for the kids, all the parents were expecting the kids to have a prom."
She continued: "We got an email asking what we would like to do. Would we like a traditional prom, something in the sports hall or a breakfast, which is a bit weird because you don't usually get the option anyway."
Kelly then explained that the school then sent out a second email that included a breakdown of the price the prom would cost, saying: "They were really inflated prices, so it was already like the school was trying to put the kids off having a prom."
She continued: "We then got an email saying the majority of people had voted for a traditional prom and that the payment had to be in the following Monday. So they gave parents six days to pay the deposit for the prom, but during that time the money had to be in for the school leavers' hoodies.
"A lot of parents can't afford that," Kelly added, "and it's a lot of money for a mum that doesn't work or needs family tax credit. Its a lot of money to have to pay out."
In spite of the cancellations, Kelly and two other parents got together and said they wanted to do something about it.
The trio have organised a prom within four days and its an event in which the local community have backed them for.
Kelly said: "The local community has been amazing. We've had so much donated, even just people donating and buying tickets so we can say, if you can't afford to come let us know and we can give you a ticket."
They've also had £500 donated from a local business to make sure the prom goes ahead, on top of prom letters, 100 cupcakes, a balloon arch, a banner and even a photographer for the event.
Commenting on why the prom was cancelled, the headteacher of St George's School, Graham Warnock, said: "We are aware of a recent unaffiliated social media post regarding the Year 11 prom. Whilst we normally ignore social media, we felt it was important to explain the facts and the misinformation being reported.
"Year 11 parents were consulted on the 21st January regarding their opinion of a leavers’ prom. We did not want to consult earlier as the country was still in the midst of a pandemic.
"We would normally release the date of the prom a year in advance but felt the situation at that time, alongside the rise of the Omicron variant, meant we felt it was not appropriate to make an announcement. Many families faced illness and financial hardship during this time."
Graham also went on to explain that on February 1, parents received a letter explaining that there were 182 pupils in the Academy, and only 76 pupils wanted a prom.
Despite prom not running, on the last school day, June 30, Graham says the leavers' celebration assembly allowed students to: "played music, staff signed shirts and year books and a breakfast was given at no cost to pupils; no pupil was turned away."
