A secondary school is paying pupils to attend revision sessions to improve exam results.

Worthing High School has selected 16 pupils for the pilot scheme in a bid to raise grades.

Deputy headteacher Jules White said: "It will work out at about £50 or so each. It increases motivation and makes the pupils feel adult."

He said pupils began an intense time table of after-school and weekend classes at the end of April focusing on the core subjects of English, maths and science.

They will get £5 worth of vouchers for each after-school session and £10 for each weekend slot but must go to at least 90 per cent of classes or forfeit the reward.

The school is also offering pupils £20 cash for each GCSE they pass at a higher grade than predicted.

Mr White said: "There is a small tranche of students who are not the highest achievers and will get D, E an F grades.

"They are not naughty and they don't rear their heads in school and sometimes they fall through the net.

"There are schemes for gifted and talented pupils, mentoring schemes for others and vocational programmes available for pupils in the school but these pupils don't fall into any of those categories."

He said the revision session money would be given as music vouchers or pupils could be reimbursed for items such as a suit or limousine hire for their forthcoming prom.

But some parents have spoken out against the scheme are. One said: "I have brought up my two daughters with the strong work ethic that you don't get something for nothing.

"I am extremely irate about disruptive students being paid to learn.

"How can I teach my girls about standards and responsibilities when they see that bad behaviour brings short-term financial rewards."

Borough councillor Reginald Green said: "I think this is totally wrong. To bribe children to go is completely wrong. They will think that's the way it goes for everything."

Colin O'Neill, chairman of the children and young persons committee for West Sussex County Council, said: "Children should be motivated and there are many ways of motivating them but paying children to effectively study harder is not sensible or meaningful in the long term.

"It's counter-productive. It encourages other pupils to sit back and wait until they are offered something and makes them resentful too. It's rewarding failure."

Worthing Borough Council leader Keith Mercer said: "Sadly not all children who go to school are highly motivated.

"Anything that improves that in a constructive way should be considered."

The project is funded through grant money from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The school, which has specialist status for languages, has allocated just under £1,000.

A spokesman from the trust said: "We wouldn't tell schools to give money directly to pupils but they are not necessarily wrong in doing that. There are different ways of incentivising students and we support schools looking at innovative ways of doing that."

Two years ago pupils at Falmer High School and Comart in Brighton were offered financial rewards for attending classes and exams.

Falmer head Stuart McLaughlin said there was no noticeable improvement in results.

He said: "The money came through quite late so we couldn't run special revision classes.

"It can work but you need to think carefully about how you allocate and what you reward."

Mr White said the school would review the programme after GCSE results are announced in August.