NTI Stacey Smith and daughter Lacey Shurmer outside St Mary's C of E Primary School
Angry mother Stacey Smith with her daughter, 6-year-old Lacey, outside St Mary’s (Picture: NTI)

A primary school has sparked outrage among parents after it organised a trip to a petting zoo for its non-English speaking pupils and their families.

English speaking pupils at St Mary’s CofE primary school in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, spent their day as usual in lessons instead of visiting the animals.

A mother and former parent governor of the school, Sharon Savage said: ‘My personal understanding to taking these children and their families on a trip to the farm was to help them with their English speaking, but why can’t they do something in the school.

‘They could have put that money to greater use for the children and their families and not made our children feel discriminated against.’

A spokesperson for the school spoke of the reasons behind the trip: ‘As a school we run a number of family learning projects on the basis of need that look to support parents of pupils when it comes to improving subjects such as literacy, numeracy and IT skills.

‘Evidence suggests that by raising the attainment and achievement of parents the attainment and achievements levels of their children are raised too.’