Students at St John’s School were pipped to the post for first place in a national maths competition.

Oscar Palmer, Becky Doyle, Alex Sadler and Jack Steen, came second in the WinAtSchool 2013 competition which aims to spark increased enthusiasm in maths and statistics. They were among hundreds of schools to take part in the competition, organised by the Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education, based at Plymouth University.

Prof Neville Davies, director of the RSSCSE, said: “This has been a fantastic competition for all involved, showing there is a great level of mathematical talent in our secondary schools.”

St John’s was among the 12 best performing schools that competed in the national finals held at the Royal Statistical Society headquarters in London.

In a close fought final the St John’s ‘mathletes’ were beaten by the Ecclesbourne School in Derbyshire with the Kendrick School in Berkshire coming third.

WinAtSchool was open to Year 10 and 11 pupils with questions being based on the Key Stage 4 curriculum.

For more information visit www.winatschool.org.uk