A headteacher has been fiercely criticised after banning children from even touching snow - let alone having snowball fights or building a snowman.

Ges Smith, from the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London, appeared on Good Morning Britain to defend the rule.

Other schools have banned snowball fights, but Mr Smith appears to have been the only head to have gone this far.

He explained: "It only takes one student, one piece of grit, one stone in a snowball in an eye, with an injury and we change our view."

The headteacher claimed that playing in the snow leaves children wet and "unfit for school".

However, he has been slammed for being a "snowflake" and for taking it too far.