Police rushed to a Witham school as up to 100 pupils protested against changes to their tutor groups.

Some students at New Rickstones Academy refused to go to lessons on Friday in a stance against vertical learning, which would see mixed ages in form groups rather than pupils from the same year.

The school called its community police officer, who was unavailable, and an Essex Police spokesman said given that it was a school an officer may have blue lighted there as a precaution.

A pupil from the school, whose mother was called to collect him following the protest, said: “We don’t want vertical learning.

See this week's Witham and Braintree Times for the full story.