PUPILS from a Stockton school have excelled in a national maths competition.

The youngsters from Grangefield School were among 180,000 year seven and eight pupils who took part in the United Kingdom Junior Maths Challenge.

The entrants took part in a demanding written examination, where calculators were banned and they had to use brainpower to solve the questions in a given time.

The pupils picked up 38 awards which were only handed out to the top 40 per cent of entrants.

Ben Wright and Peter Gardner from year eight received gold awards as did Hannah Little and Josephine Nicholas from year seven,

Another 13 pupils collected silver awards and 21 were awarded bronze.

In addition to his gold award, Ben Wright was invited to take part in the Junior Mathematical Olympiad, which is open to the highest scorers in the competition.