A LANGUAGE college, accused of penalising youngsters who are better at other subjects, this week said it had tried in vain to get the rules relaxed.

Hummersknott Comprehensive became a flagship school in the North-East three years ago when it was awarded grants for specialist status.

Now parents are complaining that having to take two languages is forcing some pupils to drop popular history, geography and religious education studies, which would have given them better GSCE grades.

The new head, Pat Howarth, who takes over in September, has been told by the Department for Education and Skills that Hummersknott must stick to the rules. Mr Howarth lives in Darlington and has children at the school.

Fifty per cent of pupils have to take two languages when choosing their options for GSCE examinations. But the top 25pc have taken at least one language this year - two years earlier than the normal age of 16. The remaining 50pc need take only one. In regular comprehensive schools, pupils over the age of 14 no longer have to take a language.

One parent told the D&S Times: "It seems grossly unfair that a child should not be allowed to study a subject they are very good at because the school insists they take a second language, which they may not be as good at or even interested in."

Another said: "This all came as a surprise. It seems a ridiculous situation that some students may have to go for a language subject, especially something like Mandarin, even if they would only get a B in that, when they would get an A or A* in history."

Ann Hughes, acting head teacher, said she had received six letters of complaint and spoken to about a dozen concerned parents whose children had to take two languages.

Other things had aggravated the situation. One was that a top 25pc of linguists were fast-tracked through last year and were now in the process of taking GCSE languages at the end of year nine. They only had to take one additional language at key stage four.

"Add to this the fact the Government has just announced the rest of the world doesn't have to do any languages," she went on. "With schools in this region ditching their languages or retrenching to one - we expect all our pupils to do one and 50pc of them to do two."

"When the new head rang the DfES, the answer was that 50pc was what was expected," added Mrs Hughes. "There may be some flexibility in future, because they obviously realise they are asking language colleges to meet incredibly rigorous targets, compared with the rest.

"We are also coming to the end of our first phase and have to apply to renew our status. I think we will see some relaxation then."

A spokesman for the DfES confirmed that, in view of the new flexible curriculum arrangements for 14- to 19-year-olds, it was now looking at the implications for students in specialist schools.

* Meanwhile Eastbourne Comprehensive has been forced to scrap German lessons from its curriculum because a full-time teacher cannot be found.

Pupils have been having lessons out of hours and the situation has deteriorated to the extent the subject will not be offered to pupils as an option in the foreseeable future.