THE winners of an Internet mathematics competition for primary schools in Hartlepool have received their prizes at a ceremony.

Director of education Jeremy Fitt paid tribute to the efforts of those who got all of the questions right, by inviting them to the council chamber at the town's civic centre.

He presented them with certificates and each winner received a game for use in class to help pupils further improve their numeracy skills.

About 2,000 youngsters took part in the competition, to mark National Number Day.

It involved downloading mathematical problems from a specially-created website, discussing them as groups and either faxing or e-mailing answers back to Springwell Special School, the hub of the exercise.

It is believed that Hartlepool was one of only a few education authorities to organise a competition in this way.

Springwell headteacher Alan Lacey designed the website and its content was put together by Debbie King, the local education authority's (LEA) numeracy coordinator and Mark Atkinson, the LEA's information and computer technology coordinator.

Mr Fitt told the youngsters: "We are really proud of all our schools and children in Hartlepool, but we are particularly proud of what you achieved in this competition.

"A competition like this is an excellent way of focusing on an exciting piece of work that we can do really well."