A WEST Norfolk school has transformed it prospects thanks to a “can-do” attitude.

A WEST Norfolk school has transformed it prospects thanks to a “can-do” attitude.

Methwold High, near Thetford, has spent the last few years challenging its pupils' attitude to learning, re-organising its staff and improving its exam results.

The hard work has now paid off as the number of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs, including English and maths, rose from 34pc in 2006 to 54pc in 2009.

And in last week's league tables this translated to leave the school as 89th most improved secondary school in the country, out of a total of 3,600.

Headteacher of the Stoke Road school, Denise Walker, said the improvement was a direct result of the hard work put in by teachers and pupils.

“Over the last few years our students have really taken on board the value of learning, become much more integrated and taken responsibility,” she said.

“Rather than seeing it as something done to them by somebody else they are seeing it's about them.”

Talking about changes made to the school, she said forms were now arranged “vertically”, with just 15 or 16 pupils from each age group in one form, teachers could now take an in-house masters degree course, staff had been restructured.

“It's all about a can-do attitude,” she said. “It's about having better aspirations and a better understanding that they (pupils) can do better.

“I say to them that if they want to do well here they can; all the structures and teachers are there. As we're the most rural school in Norfolk and we have a large catchment area, for our children who come from that background it's an achievement.”