WORDS of apology and an invitation to a compensation event have followed a wave of outrage and a raft of complaints from parents after students at Orsett Heath Academy were served up remnants of what should have been a full Christmas dinner in wraps.

The catering mishap happened on Wednesday (14 December) at the school sited on Thurrock Rugby Club's grounds. The school is run by the South West Essex Community Education Trust.

It opened in a temporary building on the site in 2020 and a second building was added  to accommodate this year's Year Seven intake.

A complete new school was supposed to have been completed on an adjacent site by the start of next near but work on it has not yet started after a number of delays and a breakdown in relations and liaison between the trust, the Department for Education  and appointed contractors.

Earlier this year the Trust announced that there would be no Year Seven intake in 2023 because the building project was so delayed.

And what has been a disappointing year for the school and trust ended with more disappointment at the Christmas lunch, when the school ran out of food and served up scraps to pupils in a wrap!

It is not the first time tat the catering has failed at the school, with previous incidents of it running out without everyone being served.

The failings have been acknowledged by catering operations manager Rob Cass.

In a message to parents and students yesterday evening (Thursday, 15 December) he said: "I would like to sincerely apologise on behalf of the academy and the entire catering team at Orsett Heath for the poor standard of yesterday's Christmas lunch.

"The overall quality of the lunch, running out of food in particular, was not acceptable and was not of the high standard that we as an academy would expect.

"It was especially disappointing as this was possibly your first Christmas dinner at Orsett heath and it should have blown you away.

"Nor is running out of food at other times, as had been the case recently, acceptable.

"By way of recompense I would like to invite all students to join us tomorrow morning for a free morning break meal comprising a hot morning break item, any soft drink and a Christmas bakery item.

"I would also like to invite everybody, including staff, to a Dukes Dinner event, free of charge in the new year.

"Please be advised that I will be addressing these issues immediately and going forwards into the new term, as this is absolutely not the standard we find acceptable.

"My sincere apologies."