Devastated schoolgirls told their prom was cancelled because of dangerous 'pranks' will now get their celebration after all.

Year 11 pupils at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls (MGGS), left school in tears after the hotly anticipated event was called off during an assembly on Friday.

The decision, made by headteacher Deborah Stanley, came after 'Muck up day' mischief which was rumoured to include girls putting soap on staircases and sprinkling itching powder on toilet seats.

'Muck up day' is a tradition in many secondary schools when youngsters play pranks on the last day of lessons before leaving to revise for their GCSE exams.

Parents begged the head to make a U-turn claiming only a small number of girls were involved in the chaos.

To save the prom, a group of parents and pupils have banded together on social media to organise their own event.

So far, almost 150 are involved in the effort but organisers remain hopeful that the official school party may still go ahead.

A letter from MGGS sent home to parents said: "The school cannot and will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour with significant impacts on the health, safety and well being of all in the school community, I am sorry for those students who have worked hard and were not involved."

The move caused anger among parents.

One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "It is a long known tradition that students get up to mischief on their last day of school, so to have their end of school prom - their celebration of three years of hard work and GCSE success, and last event to say goodbye to friends - taken away from them, is an outrage."

A committee of students spent six months making arrangements for the blow-out, using their lunchtimes and free time after school.

"The Prom Committee is deflated, feeling that their organisation and work is now worthless and, despite being so proud of the prom that they had put together, are all devastated that their hard work was for nothing," the parent continued.

"A lot of the girls' parents have ordered expensive prom dresses, some made-to-measure from overseas, which cannot be returned."

MGGS has been approached for comment.

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