A CATHOLIC primary school has cancelled a Sports Relief fun-run planned for tomorrow after parents raised concerns about charities affiliated to the organisation.

Parents of children at English Martyrs Catholic Primary School in Worthing received a letter on Tuesday informing them that the event was to be changed at the last minute.

Instead a fun-run for CAFOD, the Catholic aid organisation, will go ahead.

The school stresses this is not a change to the planned Sports Relief event - which they say has been cancelled - but rather a completely different event, which has an identical itinerary.

Yesterday morning an anonymous source told The Argus that they were “shocked” to learn the school had banned participation in the Comic Relief, saying they believed it was over religious concerns.

But the school has refused to confirm its reasons.

Steve McGinley, acting headteacher at English Martyrs in Derwent Drive, said: “It was previously going to be a Sports Relief event.”

But, he said, the school had previously informed parents that it would not be actively supporting Comic Relief, and once the contradiction was pointed out the decision was changed and parents were informed by letter.

Mr McGinley added: “What does need to be clear is that we did not change the beneficiary – this would not have been proper – we cancelled the previously planned event and planned a new one with the same arrangements so the children would not be disrupted or disappointed.”

He went on: “Some queries were raised last year regarding the nature of the work of some of the charities affiliated with Comic Relief, and the governing body is reviewing this ensuring they have all the information they need.

“The school fully supports all parents in making their own choices about who to donate money to.”

The school refused to clarify what queries were raised as to the nature and work of affiliated charities.

Sports Relief is an offshoot of Comic Relief, whose current list of international grant recipients includes the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria, Tree Aid and the Catholic Institute for International Relations.

UK beneficiaries include food banks and women’s shelters, and the National Association for Mental Health.

In the past, Comic Relief has faced religious criticism over its involvement with family planning charities, and for funding the distribution of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV in Africa.