Teachers have been told they will be issued with £50 fines if they are caught smoking at their school even though pupils doing the same will escape with nothing more than a detention.

Tideway School in Newhaven has introduced the penalty charges as part of a strict anti-smoking regime.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) yesterday said this was the first system of its kind it had heard of in the country.

Headteacher Adrian Money, who said he was passionately against smoking, has banned all staff, pupils, parents and visitors from lighting up on his school site.

Signs have been put up around the buildings and anyone caught breaching the ban will be fined £50.

But Mr Money said the fines would be "all but impossible" to impose on the pupils, meaning they would really only apply to staff and visitors.

He said: "I can't imagine a situation in which we would fine students. Any of them caught smoking would be punished in the usual way with a detention or put on one of the smoking cessation sessions we run."

Smoking was banned by law from inside all work places, including pubs and clubs, on July 1. Many have responded by providing outdoor areas where people can go for a cigarette break.

Mr Money said smoking was not permitted anywhere inside or outside at Tideway and a CCTV system covering the whole school meant no-one would be able to sneak away for a smoke.

He said: "We encourage our staff not to smoke at all but if any of them really desperately need to then they would have to go outside of the site."

An ATL spokeswoman said it would be difficult for any school to enforce a ban like the one at Tideway.

She said: "Lots of schools have said for years that staff must not smoke on school grounds but as far as I know none have gone further and begun issuing fines.

"The school would not be able to deduct a fine from teachers' wages unless it was included in the terms and conditions of their contract, which is unlikely. I'm not sure whether they'll find many people willing to pay up in cash either."

She said the union did not feel fining smokers was the best approach and suggested other disciplinary action or offering help to quit smoking would be better options.

A £10 million rebuilding project has begun at Tideway to renovate it after an arson attack in 2005 destroyed a large part of its buildings. The school was praised by Ofsted inspectors this year for its performance during difficult circumstances.

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