A 14-year-old schoolgirl has won a memorable victory over her school in a battle to wear trousers in class.

Katie Hunter took on St Robert of Newminster School claiming it was discriminating against girls with its policy forcing girls to wear skirts.

Now under-pressure governors have made a massive u-turn and decided to allow them to wear both trousers and skirts.

Katie said: "I am delighted at this decision and I can't wait to have the choice about what I wear to school."

Katie decided to make a stand about the policy at her school in Washington, Tyne and Wear, because she believed it discriminated against girls and was outdated.

She said it was much more comfortable to wear trousers, and in winter she sometimes had to wear two pairs of tights. She also said she was less self-conscious when she wore them.

Katie has been supported by her parents Catherine, a member of the school's parent teacher association, and her dad Mike.

They had been trying to get the uniform policy changed for about two years and had written to Education Secretary Estelle Morris to ask her to intervene and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

School governors buckled under the weight of the pressure from the teenager and made a full review of the uniform policy.

The school's chairman of governors Father Philip Carroll said: "We have had the uniform policy in school under review for a while. The result of that has been a restructuring of the whole uniform policy."

The issue of girls wearing trousers to school has been a high profile one in the North-East in recent years.

In 2000, Gateshead schoolgirl Jo Hale won her fight to wear trousers when Whickham Comprehensive changed its uniform policy in the face of legal action.