Cardiff: Parents' fury after son refused food and drink during heatwave

The school has now apologised and investigating what went wrong. Credit: St. Illtyd's Catholic High School

A mum and dad from Cardiff say their son was left 'hungry and humiliated' after he was unable to have lunch due to a problem with the canteen's electronic payment system.

Ben and Anna claim their son, who goes to St Illtyd’s Catholic High School, scanned his fingerprint on the ParentPay system during lunchtime on Thursday (8th September) but when it declined was told by staff: "You can’t have food, no money darling."

Ben and Anna says a technical problem with the ParentPay system meant they were unable to correct his balance as normal.

ITV Wales has seen an email sent to parents which confirms there were problems with the 'ParentPay' system.

The school has apologised saying procedures were in place for affected children to receive a meal, but regrets it wasn't properly communicate to this pupil.

Reflecting on the experience, Ben's dad told ITV News:

"Our son was left feeling humiliated, hungry and thirsty in extremely hot weather conditions.

"He walked away very upset that he was refused food and a drink.

"It should be noted that we are currently experiencing a heat-wave and it reached around 28 degrees at lunch-time today."

Ben's dad and now made a formal complaint. In a joint statement, the school and Cardiff Council said:

“As soon as the school was made aware of a technical issue with the ParentPay system, staff put a process in place for pupils affected by the fault to still receive a meal.

"Unfortunately, that process was missed for this pupil, and we sincerely apologise to him and his parents.

“The school is acting on the formal complaint from the pupil's mum and dad, conducting a thorough investigation to ensure that lessons are learnt and that this does not happen again.

“The local authority is in contact with ParentPay to review what went wrong with the system.

“Again, we would like to apologise to the pupil and his family for the upset that this has caused.”

Ben's dad has since told ITV News he accepts the apology but that it should never have happened in the first place.

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