A County Durham teacher hopes to hold one of the first inter-schools boxing tournaments in over 30 years after re-introducing the sport to his school.

Teesdale Comprehensive School in Barnard Castle has become the first school in the region to start teaching boxing again.

Both boys and girls at the school are being coached in the sport at lunchtime and after-school clubs.

Carl Lander, a former professional boxer and a Key Stage 4 manager at the school hopes many of the youngsters he is coaching will go on to take it as a module in GCSE and A-Level PE.

Mr Lander said when he introduced boxing at his former school in Bradford he had to overcome a lot of prejudices and misconceptions about the sport.

However, the recent success of stars like Amir Khan, Ricky Hatton and Audley Harrison has re-ignited the public's interest in the sport.

He said: "A lot of people saw the sport as violent, and there was a lot of misconceptions but now people realise that there's so much more to it, it's about self-control and discipline.

"It's not even in the top 10 sports for injuries, sports like football and rugby come much higher."

Mr Lander, along with fellow teacher Adrian Hopper, a former RAF boxing champion, teach the Schools Standard Scheme which is designed to introduce the sport to newcomers, in the same way tag-rugby does to rugby.

The school also has close links with local boxing clubs in Shildon and Bishop Auckland and also the National Boxing Academy.

As the pupils develop their skills, Mr Landers hopes to be able to organise a skills bout competition with Bradford City Academy this time next year.

This would be the first inter-schools competition in the country in over 30 years.

There are now 16 pupils, including six girls, taking part in the school's boxing club, with a waiting list of about 60.

One of the benefits of coaching boxing is it attracts pupils who would not normally become involved in school activities.

Mr Lander added: "Children with special educational needs or attention deficit disorders tend to favour individual sports.

"Boxing is all about what you're doing and the pressure's on yourself in the ring.

"Boxing is unique in that it attracts and caters for a much wider variety of students and builds immediately a respect for fellow participants from the gruelling fitness regime, the challenging technical skills and of course the sudden realisation that your opponent, like you, has two arms that he can swing with equal ferocity - it is a great leveller of playing fields."