AROUND 20 mums joined their children for lunch today as Mother’s Day came early to one County Durham school.

Year Seven pupils at Durham School invited their mothers to join them for lunch, with a delicious beef stroganoff, followed by Eve’s pudding on the menu.

The special guests ate from the school’s normal lunch menu that their children choose from each day, but, as guests of honour, were excused having to queue and were treated to linen clothes on their tables.

The school’s events manager, Susan Langthorne, herself a parent with two children at the school, came up with the idea.

She said: "When your child starts at senior school, even at a school like ours where there are lots of social and other events going on, it’s just nice every now and then to get to know other Mums in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere - so we thought of this as a novel way of celebrating Mother’s Day.

"School is a great place for our children to make friends and the friendships they make at Durham School will last for the rest of their lives, so why can’t the mums do the same?"

Catering Manager Sharon Taylor added: "We do our best to provide Durham School’s staff and pupils with food of high quality with plenty of choice to appeal to all tastes.

"Our pupils here are a very demanding clientele but we always receive very good feedback from them."