TV and radio star Zoe Ball disappointed schoolchildren today when a stomach bug left her unable to attend the opening of a language centre.

Zoe was due to meet proud staff and pupils at Hove Park School, Nevill Road, Hove, as they showed her around the £1 million building.

Youngsters sat in four classrooms eagerly awaiting her arrival for over an hour but then had to resume normal classes.

Zoe's personal assistant Emma Coquet telephoned the school to explain the star had been ill all night.

She said: "She was in no fit state to do anything. A bug has been going around the house and it was her turn.

"She asked me to contact Xfm to say she would not be able go to work and it was only when I looked in her diary I remembered she was supposed to have been at Hove Park.

"Zoe is mortified and we are hoping to rearrange it."

The school was awarded specialist status as a language college in February and teaches mostly French, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

Ethnic minorities also get the chance to learn mother-tongue languages such as Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujerati, Farsi and Cantonese.