Two schoolgirls have launched an attack on the trend for the American-style school proms.

The craze for expensive proms, with ball gowns, limousines and big hair, has swept the country in the past few years. But friends Lauren Collett and Anna Jordan, both 14, have called for a return to the traditional “school leavers’ party” and plan to host one themselves. Lauren, a Year 10 student at Brislington Enterprise College in Bristol, said: “We are trying to bring back the traditionalism of the old school leavers’ party. “Our idea is to take the expense, Americanisms and social exclusion out of the school prom and just turn it into a freakin’ sweet party.”