A mother is refusing to send her teenage son back to school because staff will not allow him to wear a spreader earring.

Nicola Mills, 38, is keeping her 14-year-old son, Harry Blaber, at home because his school is keeping him in isolation due to a breach school uniform policy.

Mrs Mills, from Gravesend, said she does not regret allowing her son to get the earring and believes the school is preventing the Year 10 pupil from expressing his identity.

Spreader earrings work by inserting increasingly larger pieces of jewellery into the piercing, stretching the lobe to create a hole.

She said: “I had a call from the school office and I was told the earring was too extreme and Harry had been put in isolation.

“He is at an age where he is trying to find himself and I don’t feel it’s affecting anyone. They are saying it is distracting other people, which it isn’t.”

Mrs Mills has ordered Harry some new spreader earrings that do not have a hole through the middle in the hope the school will find them more acceptable.

To reverse the stretcher piercing, Harry would have to undergo a medical procedure to reform his ear now it has a large hole through the lobe.

Mrs Mills said she believed it was the right thing to do at the time.

She said: “I actually thought it would be better than a stud because it’s cleaner and he can’t hurt anyone with it. A stud could pierce into his head or anything.”

Harry Ingham, head teacher at Thamesview School, said: “We have a clear uniform policy that is the product of extensive consultation with parents, students and governors.

“The policy has remained unchanged for two years and is regularly communicated to parents and students so we can maintain standards.”

The school’s website states jewellery is not allowed within school except for a watch and a single discreet stud in each ear.