FOR anyone who thinks that A-levels are simply grades on a piece of paper, former Suffolk schoolgirl Eleanor Briggs can prove you wrong.She used her skills during her Design Technology course at Northgate High School, Ipswich, to come up with an innovation that has improved the lives of two fellow pupils and possibly many more in the future.

FOR anyone who thinks A-levels are simply grades on a piece of paper, former Suffolk schoolgirl Eleanor Briggs can prove you wrong.

She used her skills during her Design Technology course at Northgate High School in Ipswich, to come up with an innovation that has improved the lives of two fellow pupils and possibly many more in the future.

Her "perching stool" allows people suffering from physical disabilities to take part in lessons that require students to stand, such as science experiments. The invention puts 18-year-old Eleanor in line for a national award which recognises outstanding achievements by individual pupils.

She beat off hundreds of other entries to win her regional heat in the Our School Awards 2002, sponsored by Tesco.

Eleanor, of St Peter's Close, Henley, started work on her idea after a teacher suggested she could help two younger pupils, who suffer from cerebral palsy.

Eleanor said: "One of the boys is quite tall and the other is smaller so the perching stool had to be adjustable as well as support them."

Eleanor will find out if she has won the national prize at a celebrity awards dinner in London on December 5.