The education secretary has urged youngsters not to put all their pom-poms into one basket.

Michael Gove was commenting on the cheerleading courses to be offered at Thurstable School in Tiptree from next year.

It will be the first school in the UK to offer the two year A-level courses or stand alone qualifications and follows the success of its cheerleading club, which started a year ago and has about 60 members.

But Mr Gove, on a visit to Colchester last week, said it should be an add-on subject only.

He said: "“Cheerleading is fantastic to do for fun but I don’t recommend someone putting all their pom-poms into a cheerleading basket.”