A SECONDARY school in Watford has been selected to pilot the Government's latest education initiative.

Westfield Community School in Tolpits Lane announced this week it has been awarded £25,000 by the Government to test a new literacy and numeracy programme.

The school was among 12 to be chosen to take part in Hertfordshire, out of more than 40 schools in the county that applied.

The money will be used to give training in new teaching methods in every subject, across all ages.

Mrs Pam Bloomfield, an advanced-skills teacher at the school, who will co-ordinate the project's progress during the next year, said the school had proved its suitability by successfully piloting the Government's key stage three (children aged 12 to 14) national literacy project during the past two years.

The literacy project focused on the English skills of underachieving of pupils. The new project will target literacy and numeracy skills in pupils of all abilities.

Mrs Bloomfield said: 'It is to do with ways of teaching students. It is not what is being taught, but how.'

In English lessons, pupils will learn the technicalities of language, including grammatical terms. They will take part in whole-class discussions, in the way that primary pupils now work during their literacy and numeracy hours.

Mrs Bloomfield said: 'Where as the National Curriculum told us what to teach, this is looking at the ways in which students learn and is trying to match ways of learning to ways of teaching.'

Mrs Bloomfield is confident her pupils will show improvement under the new teaching system, which will be adopted across the country if is proves successful.

Pupils at the the 12 schools will take part in additional Government tests in the summer.

The school learned this week it had also received Government funding of £11,000 to run its third literacy summer school.

The grant will enable 30 children to take booster classes before joining the school in September.