A headteacher has banned pupils from bringing mobile phones to school - after they were used to arrange fights with pupils at another school.

Parents at Priestnall School in Stockport have been told that their children can no longer bring mobile phones into the classroom, after staff found that pupils were exchanging messages to set up fights.

The headteacher, Dr Graham Nelmes, has written to parents after text and voice messages had been passed between his pupils and those at Parrs Wood High in Didsbury, making arrangements for a fight.

Staff at Priestnall School have found that up to two-thirds of pupils are carrying mobile phones.

They will now only be allowed to bring them to school if they are needed for safety reasons - and will have to leave them in the school office during the day.

£5 fine for ringing in class

This is the latest attempt by a school to discourage the use of phones by its pupils - as an ever-increasing proportion of the school-age population acquires their own phone.

Industry projections claim that 70% of young people under the age of 18 will have mobile phones by 2002.

Last week a school introduced fines to discourage the interruption of lessons by the ringing of mobile phones.

Pupils at St Bartholomew's School in Newbury, Berkshire, are being fined £5 each time their phone rings in the classroom, because teachers have become fed up with interruptions.