A MOTHER is stopping her child from going to school in a row over drinking water.

Steven Tindall, aged five, has missed five days of the new term at Whitecliffe Primary, Carlin How, in east Cleveland.

With no taste for plain tap water, Steven drinks flavoured water, but the school classes it as a soft drink, which is acceptable at lunchtimes, but is banned in classrooms.

His defiant mother, Lisa Tindall, has asked the school to give her work for Steven to do at home.

She said he will not be taking his place in class until the matter is resolved.

Headteacher Gill Steele said: "I do not think you will find a school in the country which permits soft drinks in the classroom.''

All 106 children at the school are provided with water bottles, which are daily topped up, and can be refilled from a water cooler in the classroom. They were brought in to replace a drinks fountain in the school.

Mrs Steele said: "What we have tried to do is move from the old system of a drinks fountain, which was an unhygienic source, because everybody drunk from it, licked or sucked it, to make water more readily available in the classroom, so they do not have to trot down the corridor for a drink.

"We have a proper water cooler installed. If it is a question of re-filling bottles late in the day, the children can get cooled water."

The children are provided with sports-type bottles. A member of support staff sorts them all out and makes sure every child has a bottle of water.

The bottles are sterilised and rinsed through every Friday after school.

Roger Clipsham, the chairman of the governors is in talks with the Tindall family and has answered questions they have raised about the purity of the school's water.

Mrs Tindall said: "The headteacher just will not back down, even though we have explained why to her.''