Sixteen teenagers pupils have been excluded from a Huddersfield secondary school after running amok.

Staff at Colne Valley High School excluded a group of girls and boys for one day today - Thursday - after they chased, threatened and assaulted a female pupil.

The trouble began at lunchtime on Wednesday when two Year 10 girls argued over a boy in the school dining room and threats were made.

According to principal Christian Wilcocks other girls and boys gathered and began to inflame the situation, inciting the girls to violence.

Staff then decided to remove one of the two girls to diffuse the situation, instructing her to go to the principal’s study. However, instead she made her way across school grounds to the new Wellbeing Centre near the entrance of the Linthwaite school.

The group of students, mostly girls, then sprinted past a member of staff and ignored other teachers. They surrounded the girl and grabbed hold of her before staff intervened.

The girl, who was not injured, was then looked after in the Wellbeing Centre and was yesterday at school .

Behaviour at the school has been improving recently and Mr Wilcocks said incidents like this were 'very rare'.

He said: “Violent conduct is very rare at Colne Valley, but on occasions students do bring personal issues and conflict into the school environment.

“We always do our best to support students to resolve this conflict. Yesterday lunchtime, the actions of a small number of students placed the safety of one individual student at risk.

“I will always respond robustly when students are seen to incite violence; we have to draw a line in the sand.

“When a group of students surround two students in conflict, this makes it impossible for the situation to be resolved amicably and therefore incites a violent outcome.

“When the student is actively pursued by a group of students, despite being warned to the contrary, this makes the situation even more unacceptable. This is the reason for the decision to exclude those students who were involved in this behaviour.”

The 14 and 15-year-olds will be allowed back into school tomorrow - Friday - after one-to-one sessions with school leaders who explained why their behaviour was unacceptable. They will now be monitored.