A VILLAGE school is at the forefront of a national campaign to raise achievement levels among boys.

Hurworth School, Maths and Computing College, near Darlington, has played an integral role in a project led by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the University of Cambridge.

The school signed up for the programme in 2000 after education chiefs looked at its work in assisting individual pupils.

Inspectors were impressed by the school's mentoring system, which sees pupils given continuous one-to-one support by staff.

As a result, Hurworth has worked with other schools across the country, with its efforts being held up as a model of good practice.

Mentoring will be identified as one of the key factors in improving boys' achievements in a DfES report due to be published in April.

Hurworth's system will feature as a case study.

Headteacher Dean Judson said: "Some schools may have one-to-one sessions with individuals and then just leave it.

"But the key of our system is not only the intervention, but the following up to ensure we are meeting the child's needs.

"It could be a particular subject, an attendance issue, or behavioural issue and we will put a strategy in place."

The school has also been celebrating its success in the education league tables.

It is the 29th top school in the North and, in the Value Added stakes, is 47th out of 3,800 in the country.

The system measures the progress of a group of new pupils - and gauges the value added by the school.