Three pupils at one of the country's most prestigious public schools have been expelled for dealing cannabis to other students.

Another four youngsters at £3,400-a-year Mill Hill School face a regime of compulsory urine-testing after being caught smoking the drug.

All seven youngsters who have not been named are fifth formers, aged 15 and 16, and were just about to start their mock GCSE exams.

"We have this distinction that if somebody supplied drugs to a pupil on the site we are very emphatic there is no place for them in the school," said headmaster William Winfield.

"We have to think of the 600 pupils here and my duty is to protect their well-being and, sadly, in this particular case I had to ask three pupils to leave the school."

The four who escaped expulsion were suspended at the end of November after being caught smoking the drug at the independent school in The Ridgeway, Mill Hill.

Former pupils include Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir Francis Crick, broadcaster Richard Dimbleby and the Queen's dressmaker, Sir Norman Hartnell.

A subsequent investigation revealed that drugs were being dealt at the school itself and led to the expulsion of the other three pupils.

Police were informed but none of the seven pupils involved face any further action.

Fifth form parents were informed of the expulsions in a letter from Mr Winfield, who has advised them to remain alert.

This week, he admitted it was not the first incidence of drug abuse in Mill Hill School's history.

"We are in the Year 2001 and drugs have been about since the Sixties and Seventies but we have a very clear policy here," he said. "As a result of that vigilance, four pupils were found smoking cannabis and they were suspended."

The school made a clear distinction between experimenting with cannabis and dealing it to other pupils, he said.

Pupils caught experimenting would be allowed to come back under a "supportive regime".

"That means drug testing at my behest on a regular basis over a period of time which could be one or two years," said Mr Winfield. However, those caught dealing are immediately expelled under stringent school rules.

Mr Winfield said drug testing would probably involve urine samples in the first instance.

But he added that there were no plans to introduce it for other pupils.

December 12, 2001 18:07

MATTHEW NIXSON