"Bribing" pupils to work for their GCSEs by putting expensive prizes up for grabs works - according to youngsters at one York secondary school.

Franco Comito, 15, is one-sixth of a team of boys at Joseph Rowntree School who are working hard to improve their performance in class ahead of this summer's exams.

Franco is one of 56 students who have signed up to take part in a Year 11 challenge, with boys competing for the chance to enter The Italian Job - a special karting event at F1 Racing at Monks Cross.

So does he mind he's being "bribed" into working harder?

"No. We are all working hard in class to get points for prizes and money - bribery works!" he said.

Chris Smith, 16, said: "At the end of the day, it's more satisfying if you walk out of a lesson and one of the teachers has given you a good report.

"We have been having regular meetings to find out what we can do to improve our performance."

The boys have been arranged in to six teams of six students, each with a student captain and staff manager.

The girls are in two groups of six and one of eight, again looked after by staff managers - and they are trying to win one of three hair makeovers donated by Saks Salon in York.

Amy Johansen, 16, said part of the reason the scheme is making her work harder is that the prizes are worth winning.

"It's made me work a lot harder with course work that I have on the go," she said.

The Year 11 challenge works with all subject teachers being asked to score the youngsters each week on their attitude in class on a three-point scale, with +1 better than the week before, 0 the same and -1 worse.

They get marked on behaviour, punctuality, contributions in class, quality of work and work completed.

Amy is one of the schemes success stories. In 65 per cent of her lessons Amy has been scored as better week-on- week.

The youngsters are also being awarded coursework commendation certificates for excellent coursework with their names going in to a raffle for the chance to win a DVD player and an MP3 player.

The school has got a grant from the Specialist Schools Trust to help fund the whole scheme as just one part of a raft of initiatives aimed at improving student's performance.

The scheme is the brain-child of Andrew Janes, assistant head teacher, who is responsible for raising Year 11 achievement.

He said: "There's always one or two students it's difficult to turn round, but the vast majority are making real progress and are really responding to the competition of the 56 taking part I'd say 50 of them are really up for it.

"Many of these kids are children who perhaps haven't won a lot. They are really nice kids who work hard - they are probably the hidden majority."

Updated: 09:28 Wednesday, March 23, 2005