Government school CedarBridge Academy broke Island-wide regulations on Monday when it sent hundreds of children home for failing to have blazers, it emerged last night.

According to the Ministry of Education's new Code of Conduct, which was implemented on November 1, there are three levels of action for students who fail to follow dress codes - but none of them include removing children from the premises.

At best, the school can impose in-house suspensions and take away privileges, however, that punishment is only resorted to after continuous uniform misdemeanours.

On Monday, when scores of students arrived at the school without their jackets, parents should simply have been notified and the children given a verbal warning, according to the new code.

A parent, who did not wish to be named, spotted the error when she read the Code of Conduct this week and called the Ministry of Education and The Royal Gazette yesterday.

As a result, all schools on the Island are now to be reminded by the Ministry that they must follow the guidelines in the code, rather than impose their own punishments, as in the past.

Acting Education Permanent Secretary Dr. Joseph Christopher said: "I'm discussing the matter with (CedarBridge Academy) principal (Kalmar Richards), in terms of how to deal with this situation.

"There was correspondence to the principals at the beginning of the school year in September asking them to ensure that all of their regulations were in correspondence with the code.

"The code was sent out in October and implemented on November 2. We realise that all of the things she (Mrs. Richards) was doing were from before the code came into operation."

And Dr. Christopher said he would be asking CedarBridge Academy to modify its punishments and procedures to suit the new code.

He added: "We will be reiterating the need to follow the code to all schools, but mainly the two senior schools.

"The same information is sent to all schools, but as you probably realise, most issues that come to the Press are relating to the senior schools."

Mrs. Richards was not available for comment last night and neither was chairwoman of the school board Constance McHardy.

The three levels of dress code sanctions are:

Parent notification and verbal warning;

A repeat of misdemeanour results in an in-school suspension, parent conference and confiscation of any banned clothing and accessories, where appropriate; and

Continuous occurrence leads to in-school suspension, confiscation, where appropriate, and loss of privileges.

The parent who noticed the failure to comply said: "According to this new Code of Conduct, the children are supposed to stay in school the whole time.

"But Mrs. Richards sent them out on to the streets. If anything happened to these children, the Department of Education would be liable. They could be raped, murdered or hurt in an accident.

"The school has legal custody of the children during school hours. They should not just be sent home."

Another parent Betrice Butterfield, who has two children at CedarBridge, said she supported Mrs. Richards whole heartedly on the tough stand on uniform but she said she did not realise children could no longer be sent home for dress code errors. The Pembroke mother said: "The principal sent out notes and pamphlets saying that the school required blazers. She has been saying it since July.

"People had plenty of opportunity to get these jackets. If the school was not to implement these dress code regulations, it would be unfair to those mothers like me, who did follow the uniform. I was also shocked to hear the chairman of the school PTA come out against the principal. The whole thing is lousy. Someone needs to stick up for the principal."

Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith said the flouting of the new Code of Conduct proved his belief that one code was not a good idea for all schools.

He said: "I have never been excited about a Code of Conduct across all schools. I believe CedarBridge Academy has a right to establish its own Code of Conduct.

"However, I also believe sending children home should be a last resort, as transport and personal safety come into play.

"Other sanctions, such as extra work or the withdrawing of privileges would be effective."