HARD-UP parents with children at Manchester's top-performing state school have told how they have been repeatedly pestered for money by governors.

The M.E.N. has already reported that parents with children at King David High School, in Crumpsall, have been asked to contribute each term to maintain standards, pay for religious studies and subsidise building costs.

But some parents claim they have been pressed to make '1,230-a-year payments, which have to be voluntary to meet regulations.

Mother-of-two Esther Lyndley is to challenge the school's actions in court. And other parents have told how they, too, were repeatedly telephoned by governors pressing them to pay what they could not afford.

One woman says the school suggested she could cancel a Sky subscription to pay. Another was asked how she could afford to run a car - that she had been given - but not afford to contribute towards the school.

They say they were asked what benefits they claimed and faced a humiliating quiz into their personal and financial circumstances.

Borrowed

The woman asked about Sky, said: "I said I wasn't refusing to pay but I didn't have the means. I said I could afford '5 but they hassled me and said if I paid them '15 a month they would leave me alone."

She was so desperate to continue her son's Jewish education she borrowed from her father, a pensioner.

Another mother said: "They phoned me and presumed I was on income support and I could pay. But I wasn't. I had nothing."

As a voluntary-aided maintained school, King David gets most of its cash from the government. But it has to pay up to 10 per cent of the cost of capital building work and for studies that fall outside the national curriculum, such as Hebrew and Jewish.

The statement to parents says: "The contribution is voluntary and there is no obligation. Pupils will not be treated differently according to whether their parents have contributed."

Chairman of governors Joshua Rowe said it was humiliating to have to ring parents. But it was necessary to secure the school's future.

"We have to raise money. Why should we appeal to the community before we have been to the parent body? If these people told the bursar they could not afford anything that would have been an end to the story."

What do you think of the way the school is asking for money? Have your say.

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