SUCCESS past, present and future was celebrated by the head of a Pendle high school at its annual prize-giving last night.

Peter Donnelly, head of Fisher-More RC High School, Colne, marked the achievements of pupils who left in the summer and looked forward to success for the future.

The school has put in an £800,000 bid for lottery cash to help upgrade its changing rooms and sports facilities. Mr Donnelly revealed it had recently been awarded £75,000 towards the refurbishment of the food technology room from the extra £2 billion set aside for education by the Government.

But it was the achievements of the students that Mr Donnelly concentrated on.

The school, which had the best GCSE exam results in Pendle, saw almost half its pupils get grades A*-C in five or more subjects.

In sport, Fisher-More also excelled and Mr Donnelly also praised students' work outside school and the support from parents and the PTA.

He welcomed the change of government and Tony Blair's emphasis on education. He noted the Government's White Paper on education 'Excellence in Schools' and said: "There has been much talk about the balance between pressure and support.

"Few doubt the previous government got the balance wrong, producing measures with too much pressure and too little support.

"This White Paper represents a programme for long-term reform, but it will be at least two years before we are able to discern whether the balance is right."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.