A CRACKDOWN on school uniform policy at a Darlington school has led to claims from a parent that teachers allowed children who were not wearing the correct items to go home, without informing parents.

The accusation has been rejected by the headteacher of Haughton Academy, who said a small number of pupils had been allowed to leave school to pick up forgotten blazers and ties after staff contacted their parents.

Rachel Ireland, who took over as headteacher at the academy 18 months ago, said parents had been made aware of the crackdown on school uniform, which could lead to children being taught away from the general classroom if they continue to ignore the rules.

Ms Ireland said no children were asked to leave school to change and that any child who left school without auhorisation from both parents and a teacher would be treated as a truant.

But Caroline Hodgson, 45, said she was contacted by her daughter, Kamie, 16, who told her that students were being allowed to leave school to change their clothes, in some cases without their parents being informed.

Ms Hodgson said: “My daughter was taken out of class because she was wearing plimsolls, which the school say they are not proper shoes for school.

“I live near the school so I went round and had a chat with the headteacher. She said no child would be allowed to go home without authorisation from parents, but they can’t call everyone.

“What if something happened to those kids who walked out and were going to spend the afternoon wandering the streets?”

Ms Ireland said the school had introduced a uniform policy to raise standards, but had been forced to take a hardline approach because a small minority were repeatedly ignoring the rules.

She said: “Our uniform policy is very clear and has been for a long time but students were continuing to ignore it. So today, children who were not dressed properly were asked to attend an assembly, where they were warned that if they are not properly dressed by Monday they will be removed from general teaching.

“A number of students who live locally offered to go home and change, so staff contacted their parents and gave them permission to leave for a short time.

“If a child chose to leave the site of their own accord then they will have truanted.

“We will do another sweep tomorrow and children who are not properly dressed will be warned again.

“We’ve had a lot of supportive phonecalls from parents about this - most of our children follow the rules.”