The performance of young mathematicians from Gateshead scored them a place representing the region in a new competition open to elite teams from across the UK.

The year ten team from Emmanuel College, comprising Cameron Barker, Frederick Potts, Sophie Farrell and Callie Ferguson, earned a place in the inaugural national finals of the UK Further Maths Support Programme Championship after taking part in a regional heat held at Northumbria University.

In the regional competition, the students were faced with hours of maths challenges including puzzles, a Countdown-themed round, mind-bending algebra, Sudoku and questions on latitude and longitude.

Emmanuel's A team came out on top at the end of the gruelling day, narrowly beating another team from the college of James Knox, Robin Larkin, Ben Heath and Adele Woolsey, who came second.

The A team then went on to compete in the national finals held at York University.

Frederick explained: "After a two and a half hour journey south, the A team was catapulted straight into more manic maths, with extra rounds testing our logic and problem solving skills."

James added: "Despite one member of the team falling ill for a short period, they recovered and remained strong throughout the competition."

The final result put the Emmanuel team in sixth place out of teams from all Britain.

Continuing the college's strong performance in the subject, Olivia Coltman earned a senior challenge certificate and Ishank Arora was in the top 13 of junior entrants in the Newcastle University national maths challenge awards, which attracted 1,200 entries from across England.