SPORTY student Lizzie Pickup is in line for a national award in recognition for the last year of her school life.

Lizzie, 18, a final year pupil at Huntington School in York, has already won £1,000 for herself and another £1,000 for the school.

This was her prize for winning the Edexcel Academic and Vocational Achievement Award, given by Edexcel, a national exam awarding body. Now she is in line for the Edexcel Outstanding Student of the Year award, along with five other national finalists. Lizzie, an Advanced Business Studies student, was nominated for the award by business studies teacher Helen Coupland-Smith, and said she was surprised to win it. "I started crying when I found out - it came as a bit of a shock. I didn't expect to be nominated in the first place," she said. As well as her course work, for which she looks set to get a distinction, Lizzie is a keen sportswoman.

She is captain of the North Yorkshire Under 18s netball squad and has played for the Under 18s York and District netball team. The final at the end of June will involve appearing in front of an interview panel of six celebrity judges - Simon Callow, Charlie Dimmock, Terry Waite, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Arabella Weir and Simon Weston.

Updated: 10:27 Saturday, May 26, 2001