A HEAD teacher at a Suffolk school has said he felt let down after four pupils were arrested on drugs charges during a school trip to Surrey.

A HEAD teacher at a Suffolk school said today he felt let down after four pupils were arrested on drugs charges during a school trip to Surrey.

The 15-year-olds, from East Bergholt High, where among a group of Year 10 pupils on a trip to Chessington World of Adventure, when they were stopped and searched at the park gates and found to be in possession of a substance believed to be cannabis.

The Metropolitan Police force were called and the three boys and one girl were arrested and taken to Kingston Upon Thames Police Station police station for questioning.

A boy and a girl where arrested on suspicion of possessing the drug with intent to supply and two boys where arrested for possession the drug.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said today that officers had been called to the theme park at 11.42am on Tuesday by staff at the park.

One of the boys accepted a caution while the other three children have been released on police bail to return to Kingston Police Station on August 14.

Today acting headteacher Kevin Cook said that the school was aware of the high level of drug use among young people today but insisted that the behaviour of the four pupils was inappropriate and did not reflect the general standards at the school.

"We had in excess of 700 pupils out of the school over the last couple of days and only four behaved inappropriately.

"They have let themselves down, their parents down and obviously the school. As a school we do have a clear and strong policy for dealing with such incidents on the rare occasion they do occur and we also fully support the actions of outside authorities when dealing with these young people.

"We are well aware and sensitive to the drug related issues in youth culture generally today and we shall continue to address these issues through the curriculum and in partnership with parents.

A spokeswoman for Chessington World of Adventure said that the behaviour of the youngsters as they entered the park alerted security staff and they were stopped and searched.

"The terms and conditions of the park allow us to random search if we have any reason to suspect there might be a problem.

"As a result of one of these searches drugs were found and the police were called," she said.

"Obviously we have to be very careful about any problems in the park so if we have any reason to suspect that there might be a problem we will search anybody whether child or adult before they enter the park."

The children were held in the security office until the police arrived.