A HEAD teacher is threatening to call in bailiffs to recover debts from parents who owe more than £2,000 to his school.

Simon Emsley is desperate to recoup the money from the 10 families involved.

He is angry that repeated demands for money that parents owe for their children's meals and school trips have fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Emsley said: "It is time to get tough as the cash we are having to use to plug the debt is coming out of our budget. The selfish actions of a few are spoiling things for the majority of pupils."

The parental debt problem is not limited to Lakeside School and it is believed that across the city thousands of pounds is owed to schools by parents and is often written off when children move on to other schools.

Last Christmas, Mr Emsley was forced to cancel pupils' traditional annual free trip to the city's pantomime at the Assembly Rooms because the hole in the school budget meant it could not be funded.

He said: "This will happen again this year if we can't recover some of this money but it really isn't fair on those people who pay regularly."

Schools are responsible for recovering money and ensuring their budgets break even.

Three years ago, the city council suggested head teachers should write to parents to ask for the money.

But Mr Emsley said sending letters had not worked.

It has also been suggested that schools could recover the money by taking parents to court.

Mr Emsley said: "I don't think the school governors and other parents would thank me for spending excessive amounts of money to recover the debt."

Now, he is seeking advice from the city council's debt collection department in a bid to find out what further action he can take.

The problem has arisen for Lakeside Community Primary because some parents send their children to school without any food or money to pay for meals.

Mr Emsley admits he finds it difficult to allow a child to go hungry but feels his good nature is being taken advantage of.

He said: "I am currently taking advice from city council officials to see if sending in bailiffs, or debt collectors, is feasible and cost-effective."

Other parents have agreed for their children to go on extra-curricular school trips but have not paid the fees.

The council is unlikely to collect debts from parents on a school's behalf but can give guidance to head teachers.

The schools have to pre-order the food from the council's catering service and so it is their budgets that take the hit if parents then fail to pay up.

Usually, the families involved are not among those considered to be suffering financial hardship, whose children already receive free meals.

Joan Stannard, head at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, in Mill Lane, Derby, has encountered this problem.

She said heads needed to take a firm line with parents.

"If a school cannot keep this level of debt down then pupils will suffer because the money won't be available to spend on books or paper," she said.

"We speak to parents about the problem, send letters and then finally ask them to fetch their children at lunchtime if they are not prepared to pay."

A leading teaching union said that parental debt is a growing problem for schools.

Mike Welsh, vice-president of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "This has been a problem for some time but the economic recession is making it worse.

"As school budgets come under more pressure, heads will be looking to ensure debts don't accrue.

"It is right to feed a child without money or food but parents need to be contacted urgently to ensure it doesn't carry on happening.

"There is no easy answer and very few schools will want to resort to courts or bailiffs."

Derby City Council said it understood the schools' dilemma.

Andrew Flack, city council director for children and young people, said: "We understand schools wanting to make sure that children have a meal versus the need to recover costs and the impact that may have on the school budget.

"This is a matter for each school to manage locally as they see best, but we will continue to look at ways in which we can support them in this difficult matter."