A GROUP of four students at Welshpool High School have reached the quarter finals of a prestigious school quiz competition aimed at promising young scientists.

Tomos Haine, Gwen Kuiper, Maddie Griffiths and Jacob Nisbett, who named their group the Welshpool Wizards, are one of the eight teams out of 143 to make the quarter finals of the Life Sciences Challenge.

Organised by Cardiff University postgraduates and researchers, the quiz consists of 25 questions which must be answered in 23 minutes.

Suzanne Phillips, head of science and Biology teacher at Welshpool High School, was pleased with the students’ excellent performances.

She said: “They’ve done really well,” she said. “We’ve never done it before and we were initially approached to do it during lockdown.

“Just as the competition was about to take place, we had the announcement about returning to school so it was postponed.

“They did it in school during their lunch hour. A lot of teams took place from different schools.”

The key to success in the quiz, aside from scientific knowledge, was teamwork. Several questions were split into sub-sections which would be tackled by different members of each team.

Their efforts impressed their head of science, who is now eagerly awaiting the quarter final which takes place next month.

She said: “They really did have to work as a team and they did so really well.

“They are really smart students and are all studying science currently. They will likely go on to study science at A Level and potentially university too.

“I’m sure they’ll do great – I know they’re quite nervous. Whatever happens now, they have done the school very proud.”

The quarter finals take place on Thursday, June 24.