A radio presenter was forced to show his steel today when he was made to confront his fear of heights.

KLFM's Adam Newstead was put 45ft up in the air on a cherry picker, overlooking work on a new teaching block at King's Lynn Academy.

A former pupil at the school during its Park High School days, Mr Newstead had been asked to sign a steel beam, part of a building project at the academy, a mere 20ft high.

But the breakfast show presenter was not expecting to be raised a further 25ft and left helpless, much to the delight of the watching pupils.

One pupil even joked that Mr Newstead should be left up there. Luckily, he was eventually allowed back down.

Mr Newstead said: 'I'm honoured to have been asked back to the school, it was a sweet request.

'I wasn't expecting to be put 45ft up in the air and left for half an hour – it was all a bit of fun though.'

Mr Newstead wasn't the only one who was becoming part of the school's history as earlier a number of pupils had signed the steel beam, though when it was safely on the ground.

Signing the last beam of a structure is part of a traditional topping out ceremony.

The new building, which is scheduled to be completed in September 2013, will connect the current buildings and provide a new main entrance to the school as well as a canteen, core-subject teaching areas and specialist suites for Technology, Business Studies, Art and Music, and Science.

The academy will be able to teach more than 1,100 pupils when its �10m rebuild is completed.

Work on the new teaching block, paid for by central government, began in March.

When it opens it will contain brand new science facilities, a dance studio, IT and music rooms.

The academy, which took over the former Park High campus on Queen Mary Road two years ago, expects to increase from 650 to 1,100 pupils as Lynn continued to grow. Alongside the new block, the entire campus is being modernised.

Mr Newstead later went on to present awards to pupils during a celebration of success assembly. Academy pupils were wearing non-uniform yesterday as part of a fundraising day for the academy's twinned school in Nepal, Amrit Secondary School.