School closes for shopping

Chidren missed two days of school

A school has been criticised because it closed for a day so that staff could go Christmas shopping.

Teachers at London Fields School in Hackney were given Monday off.

The next day the school, like hundreds of others in London, was closed by a teachers' strike over allowances paid to London workers.

So working parents had to make child-care arrangements for two days.

The local education authority, The Learning Trust, has said the closure was "unacceptable" and has started an inquiry.

A spokesman said: "We do not sanction days off for shopping. We have asked the head teacher for a full explanation."

The school says the governors had agreed to the closure.

Head teacher Kenneth Glozier said every year the governors allowed one extra day to be taken on top of the usual holidays.

"We are given a day to allocate each year and because this is the longest term and people are very busy at this time of year we thought it would be a good time to take it.

"We have been doing this for years and we've never had any complaints before."