WHILE many pupils have spent the past few months with their heads in text books cramming for finals, pupils of a secondary school in Rickmansworth have been getting to grips with the computer construction language of HTML.

The students have been busy preparing for the re-launch of the area's first pupil-run website.

Senior pupils, Joseph Hughes, year 12, and Mario Cirillo, year ten, are the brains and driving force behind St Joan of Arc's new website.

The entrepreneurial pair joined forces at the start of the year, following a pupil consensus that the former school website was somewhat dated and uninspiring.

Joseph Hughes, a keen internet surfer, said: "Both Mario and I have spent a lot of time looking at other sites identifying key features that look good and work effectively to incorporate within our own.

"While the school's previous website worked well, we wanted to bring it up-to-date to encourage more pupils and others interested or linked with the school to view it as a key information provider."

To achieve this, the pupils expanded their team to include website news editor and the school's head girl, Laura Zymanczyk, year 12, who has now undertaken responsibility for the accumulation of the new site's content.

Laura, a keen writer who recently completed her AS level examinations in History, English, Business Studies and Theatre studies, said: "We have so many different events that take place throughout the school term across all year groups and subjects and we now want to upload as many of these events as possible onto the website."

The team, which has been working on the website during lunch hours and afterschool, is confident it will be a huge success among pupils and teachers.

Already, it is discussing the possibility of entering it in the 2002 BECTA (British Educational Community and Technology Agency) awards 2002 .

The BECTA is a government funded body designed to promote ICT among lecturers and learners in education establishments nationwide.

Joseph also plans to expand the website team to include 30 pupils ranging from year seven to year 13, to offer a wider variety of services such as interactive chat rooms, revision guidelines and online debate forums.

The website currently features highlights from the school's recent musical production of Grease. Visit the site at www.joa.herts.sch.uk.

July 20, 2001 10:42