BRIBERY works - that's the message from Joseph Rowntree School in York.

Year 11 pupils at the school have been taking part in a challenge to improve their work in the run-up to GCSEs.

Inducements on offer include go-kart racing for the boys or hair makeovers for the girls. If this seems a touch stereotypical, it does appear to successful, with pupils putting in extra effort because the prizes are worth winning.

Schools need to be imaginative nowadays and setting rewards for good effort seems to work.

Updated: 11:27 Wednesday, March 23, 2005