The kids in tatty shoes without winter coats - and what a teacher did to help them

A teacher has been helping to provide coats and shoes for pupils after realising they couldn’t afford them.

Kemoy Walker spotted kids in the playground without coats during the winter months and more recently saw a number of students coming to school with tattered trainers or shoes.

“You look at how kids dress and you notice something’s not right,” says Kemoy.

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“When you work in education you’re always checking uniform to see what’s missing.

"You look from head to toe and that’s when you notice things like the person hasn’t got a coat on, or they’re not wearing the right shoes. So you ask a question - find out what’s going on.”

As a former youth worker in Moss Side, Kemoy could easily spot the tell-tale signs of a child from a struggling home.

And when he asked pupils why they didn’t have a coat, or the right footwear, the answer was always the same.

“It first started with the coats, and the shoes only came about three weeks ago,” he says.

“The headteacher pulled over a couple of kids with no shoes. They were coming in with trainers or shoes that were beaten down.

"The question was always 'where are your school shoes?' and the answer was always the same, ‘my mother can’t afford some at the moment.'

Kemoy, 31, says its yet another example of how the rising cost of living is affecting people from lower income households.

Manchester is the sixth most deprived local authority area in England according to the latest Indices of Multiple Deprivation.

City leaders fear the number of children who are living in poverty, estimated to be 42 pc in March 2020, will have risen and will continue to rise . Gorton and Abbey Hey - where Kemoy