THEIR schools may be miles apart in Britain's social structure, but pupils from Holywells High and Orwell Park found themselves on a level playing field in a football challenge.

THEIR schools may be miles apart in Britain's social structure, but pupils from Holywells High and Orwell Park found themselves on a level playing field in a football challenge.

The match came after pupils from the two schools swapped classes for one day last month.

Tom Sheepshanks, 13, son of Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks, spent a day at Holywells while 12-year-old Clark Bruce, who lives near Nacton Road, spent a day at Orwell Park in Nacton.

The top prep school is a feeder to some of Britain's best known public schools – Tom hopes to follow his father to Eton.

But the differences were forgotten when the two schools took to the football pitch yesterday afternoon.

The swap was arranged by the BBC current affairs programme Inside Out, which is to be shown on February 17.

Orwell Park headmaster Andrew Auster said the match – which Holywells won 3-2 – was important to build links between his school and the local community.

"It was tremendous, played in a great spirit and the behaviour of all the pupils was impeccable.

"I spoke to Karen Grimes (Holywells headteacher) about developing further links between the schools, both sporting and musical," he said.

Tom captained Orwell Park in the match while Clark led the Holywells team.

"We did worry about being overwhelmed because they are the Suffolk champions, but we went into the lead and gave them a good run – but they got back into the match," said Mr Auster.

"It was 2-2, but they got a goal at the very end of the match."