Two parents have spoken of their "frustration and anger" that they cannot attend their daughter's year 6 graduation ceremony, as they are not allowed to bring their newborn son.

Holly and Philip Candy's daughter Mia Platt, 11, is graduating from Old Clee Academy tomorrow, however they claim they will not be able to attend the special ceremony held after school because Holly is unable to take along her 11-week-old son, who is currently being breastfed.

They say that as Philip has work commitments that he cannot get out of, and the fact that their son needs to be with his mother in case he needs to be fed, none of the family can attend the graduation, as their daughter would not be able to be accompanied by one of them.

Holly claims that they had originally asked the school if it was OK if they took their young baby Paul with them, however were informed just a day later that this wouldn't be allowed, and that no siblings could attend the event at all.

She said: "Originally we were told that it was fine that we could bring Paul along with us as he could sit on my knee during the ceremony and wouldn't take up any extra seats.

"However just a day later we received a phone call telling us that this was not actually the case, and that no siblings at all can go.

"I explained that my son is being breastfed and that I cannot leave him alone, and I was asked 'could you not express milk for a bottle' which is not something that I am doing with my child.

"Now it seems that none of us will be able to attend because I can't send my daughter there alone."

Philip said: "This has made us both quite angry and our daughter very upset, as this is the last year at that school with her friends and the ceremony should be an opportunity for them all to get together before they move on.

"It seems like we are being forced to choose between one child and another, which just doesn't seem fair.

"I can understand the school wanting the attention of parents to be on their children that are graduating, but Paul is only a young baby, and surely a school would understand that he needs to be with his mother."

Old Clee Primary Academy has stated that this is the first year that the graduation event has been held for families and that the ceremony is about about celebrating the achievements of the Year 6 pupils, and wants them to take centre stage.

Old Clee Primary Academy head of KS2, Chris Raynor.

In a letter to the Candy family head teacher Mrs Tracey Roberts said: "We want to allow the children to have undivided attention from their parents and the school - something many children with siblings simply do not always get - which is understandable.

"So we felt it extremely important that we did this one thing, just for them on this one occasion and only for a short time.

"Whilst we greatly appreciate and understand your predicament with regard to your young baby being allowed to accompany you, I hope that you can understand the implications of us making exceptions to the norm. Primarily, it would set a precedent for other parents who would give alternative reasons as to why they should bring their babies and/or toddlers.

"Potentially, we could inadvertently compromise our aim of focusing on the Year 6 children with lots of younger children, toddlers and babies in attendance."

She added that there was also a health safety issue, saying: "To open this up to whole families would have meant that we would be unable to hold the event, due to both the financial impact on the academy and also the Health and Safety limitations of the ceremony being hosted in the Key Stage 2 hall."

Head of Key Stage 2 Chris Rayner said that while he understand the family's frustrations, they have been the only parents out of 200 families that have lodged any complaint to the ceremony.

He said: "We have requested that younger siblings not be brought to the ceremony in order to give primary focus on the Year 6 students, and so far we have only had one complaint about the matter.

"I have spoken with both parents and explained to them the reasons why we are not allowing any siblings and at the time Mr Candy told me that childcare wouldn't have been an issue at the time."