PUPILS at Ivy Bank High School, Burnley, have a driving ambition. The school in Kiddrow Lane is teaching year 10 and 11 pupils the finer points of road awareness and moped driving.

Learners can take the school's three mopeds for a spin in the school grounds under the watchful eye of an expert teacher.

The driving force behind the scheme is history teacher and head of Motor Vehicle and Road User Studies, Mike Robinson.

Mike, a former motorcycle instructor, has been teaching similar courses at the school since the 1980s, but he believes that Ivy Bank is one of only a handful of schools in Great Britain teaching the subject. Mike said: "We have been teaching this at the school for years. I got involved in about 1982. It was basically introduced so that the kids had something relevant and something they would be interested in."

One of Mike's students is 14-year-old Nicholas Hoyle. Before yesterday Nicholas, although a fully fledged member of the course, had been unable to ride the mopeds.

But thanks to a donation of a new bike from Lowther's of Brierfield, Nicholas is looking forward to hitting the road.

Nicholas, of Sycamore Avenue said: "I thought it would be a good subject to learn because I quite interested in bikes and cars and how they work.

All the bikes are road safe and the course is a recognised GCSE subject. Those who devised it say that children are given an invaluable insight into road safety and it can also put them on the road to careers in mechanics or engineering.