A GROUP of students from Queen Elizabeth's Academy, Crediton, have returned triumphant after achieving second place in the National Final of the Senior Maths Team Challenge.

The students, Nathanael Alcock, Sean Hao, Ella Kershaw and Troy Sharples, took part in the competition in London, on February 4.

The Senior Maths Challenge is the premier competition in the country for the nation's Mathematical Sixth Formers.

The competition consisted of two parts. The first was a poster design round where the students were given an area of maths to research independently beforehand and then were given an hour to design a poster explaining the topic and answering high level questions testing their understanding.

This year's subject matter was ruled surfaces such as hyperboloids and helicoids and the principles of vectors and matrices that underpin them.

The Queen Elizabeth's team performed fantastically well, finishing second overall to Leeds Grammar, an outstanding achievement that was a credit to their preparation, intelligence and ability to rise to the challenge.

The second part of the competition consisted of three rounds, a group round, a cross-number and a mini-relay.

The team made some errors on the group round and were unable to claw back the difference to catch up in a high scoring contest but, nonetheless, performed extremely well.

There were 60 finalists in all from the different regions of the UK including many infamous schools such as Eton, Harrow, Cheltenham Ladies College, Manchester Grammar and Rugby to name a few.

John Wright, QE maths teacher, said: "Congratulations must go to the QE team. Second is a fantastic achievement.

"Given all secondary schools in the country enter the tournament; it was a major achievement just to reach the final as one of only two teams from Devon.

"The team showed fantastic initiative, understanding and teamwork on an intensive and rewarding day".