Four teenage girls have been expelled from school for snorting cocaine before a lesson.

The 14-year-olds were seen taking the Class A drug in a toilet cubicle.

The pupils at the Holy Trinity School, in Gossops Green, near Crawley, were taken out of lessons when classmates reported to staff that the girls were sniffing cocaine off a toilet cistern.

They were questioned by teachers and two of the girls confessed to bringing the drug into school.

Another two admitted snorting the cocaine and police were called.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Police were called to Holy Trinity School at the school's request after reports of girls believed to be in possession of drugs.

"Police conducted a thorough search and a 15-year-old girl was interviewed and given a final warning by Crawley Police.

"In relation to the same incident, a 14-year-old girl was given a police reprimand."

Tests on remnants of cut-up straws used to snort the drug showed the drug was high-strength cocaine.

The incident happened on January 31.

One of the girls told reporters: "My friend knew what to do and told me it probably wouldn't do anything so I tried it.

"We snorted a line-and-a-half each through a plastic straw and went back to lessons."

She said her friends had paid £40 for a gram of cocaine from a teenager attending another school.

Her father has accused the school of "sweeping the issue under the carpet" but the school headmaster, Peter Wickert, has refuted this allegation.

He said: "Parents can rest assured that this school has a zero tolerance to any sort of illegal drugs.

"Any pupil bringing illegal drugs into school, being found to have been using them or supplying them either in or out of school will be permanently excluded immediately."

He went on to describe the school, where he has been in charge for five-and-a-half years as "wonderful" and said the girls involved had been "very naive".

Holy Trinity school in Buckswood Drive is a Church of England secondary school of 1,260 pupils, which regularly comes top in Crawley for GCSE and A-Level results.

The headmaster said there had never been any previous incidents of drugs being used on the premises during his time there.

However, one of the former Year 10 students told reporters she knew of times when pupils had attended classes while high on ecstasy or cannabis.

The school's discipline policy for exclusion reads: "As a sanction, pupil exclusion is only used in serious misbehaviour cases, where there is a single incident of gross misconduct or a repeated failure to respond to lesser punishments.

"An exclusion will normally be for a fixed term.

"Permanent exclusion is reserved for the most exceptional cases or following a warning after repeated fixed term suspensions."