A school has removed its toilet doors - to try to make students feel safer.

The main doors have been taken down at toilet blocks at Tideway School in Southdown Road, Newhaven, in preparation for the start of the new term.

Headteacher Rob Corbett said the decision was made after students were asked in a general survey whether there were any places in the school that they did not feel safe.

He said: “The only responses we got was in the toilets, particularly the girls' toilets.

“We talked to a couple of focus groups, particularly of younger students where the responses were coming from. They said that groups of older girls who gathered in the toilets seemed intimidating.

“Also, anecdotally, if students want to truant from a lesson they often go to the toilets.”

When students returned to school after the summer break, they discovered that all of the outer doors of the toilets had been removed.

For more see today's Argus.