A FORMER Whitehaven Academy headteacher was faced with up to 200 students who "ran riot'' at her new school in Blackpool.

Lynette Norris, who is head of Highfield Humanities College, pledged to "stamp out this silly and unnecessary behaviour'' after the police were called following a spat between two schoolboys which led to a crowd of students chasing each other through the corridors.

Mrs Norris, who was head of Whitehaven School and then Whitehaven Academy from 2010 until 2014, said: “We had a dangerous episode where too many of the school population gathered together and ran around school chasing each other.

“It started very simply by two boys who fell out but then quickly gathered momentum with others joining in ‘for fun’."

Special assemblies have been held at the school, and youngsters who break the rules will now be given break-time and lunchtime detentions as part of a ‘stepped approach’ to its disciplinary procedure, Mrs Norris said.

Parents of youngsters at Highfield, which the government ordered to become an academy after it was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, were sent a letter outlining the crackdown ahead of an open meeting with the Tauheedul Education Trust (TET), which is poised to take over the school.

Insp Mark Morley, of Blackpool Police, said there are a ‘number of behavioural issues’ at the school, which has been visited on several occasions.

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “We were called at around 1.50pm last Thursday to reports from the school that some pupils became aggressive and were running around the school.

“The school could not control them.”