A BUS on its way to a Kent school was covered in flour as pupils went wild on the top deck on Wednesday.

As the Poynter’s bus made its usual way to Homewood School in Tenterden from Ashford at 8am, the driver had to stop twice to calm things down and clean up.

Barry Poynter, director, said: "The driver was too stressed and had to come back to the Wye depot."

The bus company chief sent the double-decker back to the school to be cleaned.

He added: "Why should we have to clean this? There is graffiti on the roof. It makes me absolutely sick. We serve all the schools in Ashford and three in Canterbury and we never have this."

Poynter’s buses were vandalised twice in 2004 on trips to the school.

School vice-principal William Cotterell said: "We have taken steps to identify the individual responsible for the incident and his parents have been contacted.

"By way of reparation both he and a number of the other students have cleaned the bus.

"We realise that for the bus driver and the other students on the bus, it has made their journey uncomfortable and for this the boy concerned and the school apologise."