YOUNGSTERS at Rastrick Preparatory School have struck gold.
Two pupils have won gold medals in the Mathematics Association's annual competition and others won four silver and six bronze.
The competition pits the wits of the brightest nine, 10 and 11- year-olds in the country against one another in a battle of numbers.
Head teacher Susan Vaughey said she was proud of her pupils' achievements.
She praised not only their hard work but that of maths teacher Joy Kempster.
"Both the pupils and Joy have worked really hard and they deserve what they have achieved," she said.
"The pupils we pick have to be from the top percentage of those in the school and they are naturally talented young people."
The Mathematics Association pose the questions and send them to schools across the country. The children then answer them under exam conditions and they are returned to the association to be marked.
Mrs Vaughey said the school put a great deal of importance on maths and hoped the skills the children are learning will shape future career decisions.
"We are in desperate need for mathematicians and scientists in this country so hopefully some of these children will go on to fill some of those rolls," she said.
"We have entered the competition every year for about five years now and the standards keep getting higher and higher."
The pupils who won gold were Benjamin Tattersley and William Batist; silver, Liam Marshall, Ella Watson, Molly Worthington and Thomas Holmes; bronze, Eleanor Mason, Callam Shaw, Adam Cousen, George Greenwood, Sarah Killoran and Chloe Henson.
