A secondary school in Tonbridge has faced criticism after it asked pupils to vote for the “best looking” male and female in Year 9.
Hugh Christie School in Kent sent out a nomination form for teenagers to fill in, in preparation for their “celebration assembly” at the end of the year.
Other categories on the form include “biggest poser”, “biggest ego”, and “most irritating habit”.
Twitter user Lucy Hall shared a photo of the form, writing: “My nephew’s school just sent them home with this – school is hard enough when you are 14 to create awards over best looking boy and girl.”
Hall added: “Shocking @HughChristieSch why would you let this happen? Parents are appalled by this.”
Others on Twitter were similarly shocked by the form – and some suggested more positive categories the school could have used.
Replying on Twitter, a spokesperson for the school wrote: “We will inform students to disregard the form. The member of staff responsible has been spoken to. We totally agree this was inappropriate and apologise unreservedly for any offence caused to our students and parents.”
In a statement shared with HuffPost UK, Jon Barker, executive principal, said: “I wish to apologise unreservedly for the awards nomination form circulated to students and seen by parents that has caused offence.
“As soon as Senior Leaders were made aware, the form was withdrawn and replaced with one that correctly reflects the school’s ethos. We will apologise to all students who received a form today and explain why we believe it was inappropriate to use.
“We have also emailed parents to apologise. Hugh Christie takes issues concerning the mental health and wellbeing of its students very seriously. Therefore, we have launched an internal investigation as to why and how this happened.”