A 'FUMING' Wirral mum received a bill in the post from school for £1 her son had borrowed for a bus home last year.

Sarah Murphy's son Jack needed money for the bus on an afternoon before St Mary's Catholic College broke up for summer in July.

But Sarah was fuming when nearly two months later, a letter was sent in the post asking her to "settle the debt" with the Wallasey school's office.

On Wednesday, Sarah, 38, said: "It's absolutely pathetic.

"It would have cost so much more than £1 in postage and packaging and the time taken by a member of staff to write the letter.

"When I got it I was shocked. It's laughable, really.

"The fact they couldn’t have just passed the letter onto my son before they broke up for the school holidays is ridiculous.

"Usually they give me a phone call out of courtesy."

According to Sarah, Jack could not remember exactly when it was that he had borrowed the money, but that it was around two weeks before the Wallasey Village school broke up in July.

Jack, 13, goes back to St Mary's to start year nine today, but Sarah's frustration has been heightened by a dispute over her son's passport, which she says was lost by the school following a trip to France over six weeks ago.

She said: "It makes me even more fuming about this whole £1 situation.

They went away before the holidays and I got a phone call from the school telling me they cannot find it.

"I've emailed since but haven't heard anything back.

"It's an expensive document to replace."

In the letter addressed to Sarah, the school asks her to "settle the debt" by bringing the cash in or paying over online service ParentPay.

Speaking about the £1 debt, she added: "I haven't repaid it yet but will do so after Jack goes back to school.

"With it being a pound, I don’t want them sending debt collectors round to my house!

"I might be a funny bugger and pay it in pennies."

It comes after St Mary's earlier this year agreed to change the design of its girls' toilets after facing a privacy backlash from parents.

That was due to the school's decision to take away a section of corridor wall to make the toilets open plan, with the only doors being those on individual cubicles.

After a picture of the new layout was posted online and met with fury by parents, the school said it would put up "modesty screens" to address concerns.

The school was contacted for comment over the £1 invoice.