FRUSTRATED dad Phil Young blockaded his daughter’s school in a row over a blazer yesterday.

Mr Young believes his daughter Leah, 15, is being victimised because her parents cannot afford to buy her a new blazer after she outgrew the one provided by the school.

Every time she turns up to Nova Hreod Academy in another jacket she is taken out of normal lessons and put into isolation, he told the Advertiser.

So yesterday morning he parked his car at the gates in a bid to prevent staff driving onto the site.

“Last month we asked whether she could have a new blazer. They said they would buy half of it,” he said. “But we are on benefits and my wife is being treated for cancer.”

He explained that every spare penny was being spent on travel to Oxford for wife Carol’s therapy and they could not afford to spend the extra £16.50 – half the cost of a new blazer.

He said he had taken it up with the school several times over the past few months and was promised the issue would be sorted out. But before Easter it was clear Leah could no longer wear her old blazer.

When the school puts Leah in isolation, Mr Young started collecting her.

“I’m not having her stuck in isolation when she has done nothing wrong,” he said.

He added that his daughter was not a problem pupil and would often help at events like parents’ evenings, as well as being a deputy librarian.

Leah’s mum said: “It might sound like we are just moaning and moaning but what am I supposed to do? Stop having my treatment so she gets a blazer?”

The school bought a blazer for Leah in Year 9 after the new uniform rules were introduced, but that was 18 months ago and it is now too small and threadbare.

“We understand they have to have school uniform, but we can only buy it in one shop at their prices,” said Mrs Young. “With the old school uniform you could go somewhere cheaper.”

Her husband pointed to the extra money the school was given to help Leah as a young carer and questioned why some of it could not be spent on providing her with a new blazer.

“My friends are disgusted by it,” said Leah. “I need my education.”

In a statement to the Advertiser the school said: “Nova Hreod Academy is a school that prides itself on high achievement and high standards of behaviour, uniform and attitudes towards learning.

"The school has undergone a rapid and transformational change over the past three years and is recognised as one of the most improved schools in the South West region; this was validated by Ofsted when we were judged to be a ‘Good’ school in all categories earlier this year.

"The overwhelming majority of students come to school each day smartly dressed and in full uniform and help to maintain our high standards.

“While we would never comment on individual cases, where a family requires extra support with purchasing uniform, we always seek to assist them on a case by case basis.”