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A school has apologised after an 11-year-old was left out of a reward for 100% attendance because she had a day off for her mother's funeral.

St Giles' Junior School in Exhall gave Maddie Stevens permission for the absence then excluded her from an attendance reward trip to a restaurant.

Maddie's father, Andy, told 5 live Breakfast "I was speechless. My wife contacted the school to check and she had 99.6% attendance and had only missed the one day for her mum's funeral".

Anne Perry, headteacher of St Giles Junior School gave this statement "I want to say how truly sorry we are and take this chance to explain how the oversight occurred.

The data used to decide which children were eligible was produced by the Government-backed system that all schools use. It effectively identified those children who had solely achieved 100% attendance but did not report reasons for absence.

It was never our intention to upset or offend anyone who was unable to attend school for medical or compassionate reasons. We recognise and fully sympathise with the family's views, and had we known at the time that we had unwittingly caused offence, we would have taken immediate steps to address their concerns. Sadly we were not given the opportunity to do this."

This clip is from 5 live Breakfast, 22 July 2014.

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