Friday 26 November 2021
Raynes Park High School wants nearby Tesco to consider banning its students
The school has told us it doesn’t want its pupils going into the supermarket at Shannon Corner.
It’s after some shoppers raised issues of large groups of children that appeared to be “loitering” there.
The school’s deputy head, Laurence King says “we do police our school gates and bus stops every morning and afternoon.
Unfortunately, we do not have enough staff to regularly patrol around Tesco, who do have their own security.
We do not want our students going into Tesco and have asked Tesco on numerous occasions to ban them.”
Pupils will be talked to again about the situation.
Tesco says it wouldn’t look to ban all the students but would work with Raynes Park High to find a solution.
Raynes Park High School Deputy Head, Laurence King, has told us;
We do police our school gates and local bus stops with senior staff
every morning and afternoon. Unfortunately we do not have enough staff
to regularly patrol around Tesco, who do have their own security. We do
however, respond very swiftly if we receive
a direct complaint from Tesco or a member of the public - about the
behaviour of our students.
We do not want our students going into Tesco and have asked Tesco on
numerous occasions to ban them. They did do this once about two years
ago, for a short time and we fully supported this and wrote home to all
parents/carers. This did not last very long
however, as our 1100 students are a valuable potential source of
revenue for Tesco.
We have not had any direct complaints from Tesco or members of the
public at Tesco, in the recent past and as I have said we do always take
these seriously and respond quickly and appropriately. It is most
definitely not in our interests for some of our
students, however small in number, to be bringing our reputation into
disrepute.
We will once again speak to our students in assemblies about their
role as ambassadors out of school and their responsibilities in the
local community, to behave at all times and respect others. We will also
make it clear to them that we will deal very severely
with anyone who is reported to us, for inappropriate behaviour, outside
of school.
I am very happy for any of your listeners to report their concerns to
me and to come into to school to identify the students concerned -
using our school photos. They could also make a complaint to Tesco.
A Tesco spokesperson has told us;
We haven’t received any recent complaints about the
students meeting in or around our store.
Most of the students visiting the
store are buying food and do not cause any issues for customers or colleagues.
Our store
managers have the ability to refuse entry to customers however this is usually
following evidence of repeat offenses in store.
Whilst we wouldn’t look to ban all Raynes Park High
School students from the store, we are happy to work with the school to reach a
solution.
posted by Radio Jackie News Team @ 8:10 am
