LUNCH breaks are to be made shorter at Huntcliff Comprehensive School, Saltburn, in a belief it will help students to study better and reduce unruly behaviour.

School staff hope a 40-minute break will lead to less boisterous behaviour after the meal and cut down the number visiting fish and chip shops.

Val Clayden, assistant headteacher, said the shortened lunch would mean school officially ending at 3pm so that more after-school activities could take place.

These could not easily take place during the lunchtime hour when some of the 500 students got "unfocused and a bit high-spirited" with time on their hands.

She said research had shown that students learnt best in the mornings. Many schools had cut out lunch breaks so they finished earlier, as in Germany.

The school in Marske Mill Lane faces a possible problem with earlier finishing for students living in East Cleveland because they would have to wait 50 minutes for a bus.

"The bus company Arriva and ourselves are trying to come up with a way forward. Our school library is open until 4.30," said Mrs Clayden, who is urging more parents to park in the leisure centre car park.

There was also a problem with some buses at the start of the day with some children from Brotton arriving at 7.30, well before school started, she said. But the premises were open at 7.30 and the students were well-behaved.

Also, she said, some of the 150 students who had permission from their parents to go home for lunch went instead into the town to buy food, which was against school rules.

Mrs Clayden hopes the shorter lunch break will cut out much of this problem.

A special issue of Saltburn's monthly magazine Talk of the Town was produced by Huntcliff School and it included a page on the new timetable.

A governor was quoted as saying it would be good for staff and students who wanted to revise for GCSE exams and take part in other after-school activities.

These include, said Mrs Clayden, conversational Spanish, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme work, art, music and sport.