Maths whizzes at a Northumberland primary school were celebrating after placing in the Top 20 of a national times tables competition.

St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Alnwick ranked 19th out of all participating schools, and 16th out of all primary schools, in the England Rocks contest, which was run by the international app and learning platform Times Tables Rock Stars.

Children were challenged to correctly answer as many multiplication and division questions as possible, with 384,658 pupils from 4,543 schools around the country collectively answering 201,591,236 questions over the course of the three-day  competition.

St Paul’s stats were equally impressive, with the school’s top class answering 4,246 questions correctly per pupil, and the best performer giving 21,351 correct answers.

“Children in Key Stage 2 took part in the national Times Tables Rock Stars competition,” said Eileen Lomax, Headteacher at the school.

“Children had to spend one hour practising their time tables knowledge online each day. Each class was allowed 15 minutes in school, but were asked to complete the remaining 45 minutes at home.

“At the beginning of the second day, we were the top primary school in the country. We finished in 16th place out of over 4,000 primary schools, and in 19th place out of all the primary, middle, high, secondary and private schools in the country. I think this is an achievement worth celebrating.”

Last year St Paul’s, which is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust, ranked 49th in the annual challenge.

“It’s been an amazing few days at St Paul’s, with so many children being enthused by the competition,” added Deputy Headteacher Rory Cook, who organised the event. “It’s really helped to raise the profile of times tables at our school.

“St Paul’s hopes to use the success of the competition as a platform to further enhance maths and a love of times tables within the school.”