TEACHERS and pupils at the former school of the region’s newest star are backing her to win X Factor.

Teesside High School, in Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, has launched a Facebook and Twitter campaign to urge people to vote for Amelia Lily Oliver, who has become the favourite to win the hit television talent show.

Amelia, from Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, who has just turned 17, has had the odds of becoming this year’s champion slashed to 11/4 after a comeback performance on Saturday night’s show.

And she learnt it all at school, according to her former Teesside High School teachers, who have released images of Amelia performing in her school years.

The £3,785-a-term school, which Amelia left in the summer, has been using Facebook and Twitter to encourage the public to vote for their girl.

Headteacher Malcolm Wilkinson said everyone is buzzing with excitement again following Amelia’s dramatic return to X Factor.

The teenager had been eliminated from the contest in the first week, but returned after winning a public vote.

Mr Wilkinson said: “To be able to perform with such confidence, with only two days to rehearse the song, is incredible and we are very proud of her.

“From the very first moment we heard Amelia singing during a school assembly four years ago, we knew she was very talented.

The whole school is right behind her and thinks she can and should win the competition.”

Helen Mellor, head of marketing at the school, remembered the first time she saw Amelia perform. She said: “I’d only been at the school for a few days when I saw her in the celebration of achievement assembly. I remember hearing her sing and turning to a colleague, actually a bit shocked, and just saying, ‘who is that?’ “She would perform with her guitar at assembly, sometimes songs of her own. She’s just a very, very talented girl.”

Amelia’s mother, Aranka Bradley, 47, said that her daughter had been dedicated to singing and music all her life, but found it extra hard after being diagnosed with diabetes aged three.

She said: “When she was a bit older the doctors would talk to her instead of me because she’s just so level headed.

She knew what she wanted and something like injecting herself with insulin four times a day wasn’t going to stop her. I’m just so proud of her.”