When pupils were sent home from Nunthorpe school for uniform breach

SIXTY-FIVE pupils were sent home from school in January 2009, as a North-East comprehensive took an unprecedented stand on dress standards.

Students at Nunthorpe School, in Middlesbrough, were excluded for ignoring the strict policy about what they are expected to wear.

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Then-headteacher Debbie Clinton warned persistent offenders that they risked permanent exclusion unless they toed the line.

She said pupils at the school had been disciplined for wearing tight-fitting white shirts, coloured socks and trainers.

Pupils outside the comprehensive said classmates were also suspended for wearing bobbles that did not match their hair colour and badges.

A warning was sent to all parents last October by Miss Clinton, asking them to support the school's commitment to a high quality uniform.

Miss Clinton wrote: "We are passionate about high standards in all aspects of school life at Nunthorpe. A key feature of those high standards is our commitment to a perfect school uniform.

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"The relationship between outstanding examination results, especially at GCSE, and a strong, rigidly enforced school uniform is clear and proven across the county."

Teachers at another school were left rubbing their eyes after seven sets of twins joined its numbers, in January 2009.

Staff at St Martin's Ampleforth, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, believed the recruits could have set an English record for the number of twins in one school.

On its books are Janet and Jenny Chan, 13; Benedict and Gregor Sweet, 11; Phoebe and Edward Irven, ten; Tinika and Mikaela Crossley, seven; Merlin and Octavia Howard, six; Harry and Rosie Snelling, three; and Imogen and Lydia Cooper, three.

Another two pairs of twins will join the school's nursery section from September.

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Almost 1,000 fans of long-running television drama Heartbeat backed a campaign by villagers to save the show.

Residents of Goathland, where the Sixties police drama was filmed, feared it would be dropped by maker ITV after a halt in production of episodes was announced in January 2009.

Residents feared for the impact on the local economy through lost tourism if the programme was axed.