Two Selby schoolboys were sent out of assembly and told to get changed after turning up at school in drag as part of a non-uniform day.

Barlby High fourth-formers Martin Dyer and Stuart Kiddy, both 15, were carpeted by headteacher Francis Loftus, and ordered back to the Barlby house where they had left their normal clothes.

The two pranksters had their classmates in stitches as they turned up at school wearing lipstick and eye shadow.

Martin was wearing a skimpy black dress with a strap back, his mother's high-heels and a blue straw hat, while his friend Stuart wore a dress and knee-high boots.

Mr Loftus, an ordained Church of England minister, was not amused by their antics on the day before the Easter break, a non-uniform event to raise money for children's charity Whizz-Kids.

He ordered them out of assembly, and told them to wait outside his room before sending them back to a nearby house to get changed.

Mr Loftus has also written to the boys' parents informing them it was a non-uniform, not a fancy dress day, and that he did not want it to happen again.

He said: "I sent them out of assembly because everyone was laughing and sniggering, and I wanted an ordered assembly.

"It was a schoolboy prank and they played to the audience, but it was not conducive to the last assembly before Easter when I talk to pupils about making the most of their holidays to prepare for examinations.

"The two lads got a bit of a chewing off and were back in school changed by about 9.20am. It was no big deal."

Martin's mother Janine Dyer, of Hemingbrough, said it was just a "jape".

Mrs Dyer said at the school's last non-uniform day, the pair had turned up as businessmen in pin-striped suits and bowler hats.

"I can understand the headteacher's point of view, but I think on this occasion he could have been a little more lenient."

Stuart's family, who also live in Hemingbrough, declined to comment.

The school raised £240 for Whizz-Kids, which provides equipment for children with little or no mobility.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.