A Colchester school is battling the problem of students smoking by offering a confidential clinic to get them to quit.

Pupils at Sir Charles Lucas can get free advice and help to encourage them to give up the habit.

The innovative scheme could be used as a model for other Colchester schools.

Selma Stephen, spokeswoman for the Hawthorn Avenue school in Greenstead, said: "This is entirely designed to help young people who may have started smoking to stop.

Ms Stephen said Sir Charles Lucas was an entirely non-smoking school.

"Staff cannot smoke on the premises. There is no room where they can go and have a cigarette. We want to promote the right attitude to pupils."

The initiative has been running since the start of the year on the school premises.

Published Tuesday, March 19, 2002