PUPILS at a Colne school have been given driving ambition to get to lessons - their very own go-kart.

Pupils in Year 11 at Park High School built the machine themselves and are now getting behind the wheel as part of an incentive to boost school attendance.

The go-kart was constructed in partnership with Wheels Within Wheels, a Nelson-based project that provides recreational activities for youngsters.

Pupils who have become disinterested in school agreed to attend lessons for the rest of the week after helping build the kart on Monday afternoons.

Baden Burns, inclusion co-ordinator at the Venables Avenue school, said the scheme benefited both the school and its pupils.

He explained: "We were struggling to get them into school and knew they were interested in cars and mechanics, so said if you come into school you can do this.

"Pupils built the go-kart on the basis they would go to school for the rest of the week. Wheels Within Wheels provided the expertise and supervision."

The initiative, which started just after Christmas, also taught the pupils how to be responsible drivers through a course run by the British School of Motoring.

It was one of several schemes the school runs to encourage youngsters to attend lessons. It also recently expanded its PE curriculum to appeal to more students.

Mr Burns added: "Around the Colne area there a lot of people disaffected by school so we think of different ways of encouraging them to lessons.

"I think it has been a great success. It has kept the pupils interested.

"From our view, the aim was to keep them interested in school especially at an important time in the run up to their exams."