An experiment in Bradford where misbehaving pupils were threatened with jail has attracted interest from White-hall officials.

Other Bradford schools are also lining up to copy Laisterdyke High, which has successfully served pupils warning letters about anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs).

ASBOs are new powers available to local authorities, normally employed against nuisance tenants on Council estates.

But at Laisterdyke, the school teamed up with Bradford Council and police to issue errant pupils with warning letters saying ASBOs could be sought against them.

The law allows for children as young as ten to be locked up if they breach the terms of their order, for example by breaking a curfew.

Joan Law, headteacher at Laisterdyke, said she had been inundated with calls since the Telegraph & Argus published details of the scheme last week.

She said: "The Home Office has been in touch as a result of all the publicity and told us it was a creative use of the threat of ASBOs. They are supportive of what we are doing.

"A lot of support has been expressed in letters and telephone calls from all over the country, for schools taking a stand against low-level disruption, which can become high- level disruption."

And a number of members of the public have written to the school to express support for the crackdown, which began after pupils stole computer equipment.

Meanwhile Geraldine Howley, director of housing at Bradford Council, said other schools had been clamouring to work with her department to try out the new weapons against their own unruly pupils.

She said the huge media response after the T&A revealed the scheme and interest from Government officials proved Bradford was pioneering the new tactic. And as a national Council member at the Institute of Housing she hopes it can gain recognition under its system of national accreditation.

"I think this is a very innovative idea," Mrs Howley said. "The Government is known to be very keen on ASBOs, and the policy unit based at 10 Downing Street do occasionally come out for visits to have a look at things like this."

Another backer of the scheme is John Roberts, head of Oakbank School in Keighley. "These orders are stronger than other punishments," he said. "We are saying that they are an option, that custodial sentences are a possibility and that we can and will serve them if the need arises."