Heaton Manor school apologises to angry parents after pupils were taken out of classes for falling foul of uniform rules

A school has been forced to apologise after it threw more than 50 children into detention for wearing the wrong trousers.

Pupils at Heaton Manor school in Newcastle upon Tyne were taken out of classes after falling foul of confusing uniform rules.

Angry parent Christine Reid said the minute her daughter walked through the school gates, she was taken into isolation.

She told the Newcastle Chronicle: "She was in that room for eight hours yesterday and she was deeply distressed. I'd understand if she'd behaved badly, but this is punishment for a pair of trousers the teachers don't like. She's in year 11 and studying for her GCSEs. She's lost two days' education because of this ridiculous rule and I'm absolutely livid."

Lynne Ackland, headteacher at Heaton Manor, said the school had been tightening its uniform rules but had not anticipated the number of trouser styles the pupils would wear. She said the school had been over-zealous and inconsistent and would apologise to the pupils and their parents.

"The school has been consulting for a long time about plans to tighten up our uniform rules," she said. "This included a request to parents for 'tailored' black trousers as opposed to very tight-fitting trousers, leggings, jeggings or cargo pants.

"However, we had not anticipated the many different styles we would be confronted with on the first day of term and we have clearly been overzealous and inconsistent in our response to this.

"We have apologised and will apologise again to the pupils we wrongly put into detention and to their parents. This was a sincere effort to standardise our uniforms and there has been great support from the school community. We will clearly need to be much more specific with people in future about what the standard uniform should look like."