FOUR wizards with numbers from The Royal beat off stiff competition by 1,300 teams regionally to make it through to the national finals of the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge.

Team members (pictured) Selina and Isabella, from the upper sixth, and Lucy and Hedy, from the lower sixth, were one of just 88 teams nationally to make the grade.

Royal maths teacher and team coach Jane Orchard said: “The four girls did really well. It was a very intense day and they gave it their all.

“The standard was very high for both the research poster competition and the mathematical challenge competition and all teams were highly commended on their performances, during a long and exciting day.

“After the poster round, we discovered The Royal had been one of the teams who had answered the three questions on the day completely correctly – no mean feat under pressure and on a difficult subject.

“The entire school is immensely proud of the team and their hard work, commitment and determination.

“A wonderful day was had by all and an amazing sense of achievement.”

• Also on a roll, were members of the school’s key stage four team, who won their age section of the annual Surrey SATRO problem solving competition and will go through to the Surrey finals in March.

Three teams of pupils attended the annual competition at Guildford’s George Abbott School and this year’s challenge was to design and construct a wind-powered elevator or lift, which could raise up to 23 polo mints from floor level to table.

All three teams worked together to come up with an initial design and construct a working model. The Year 10 pupils did especially well. They raised over 20 polo mints and won the KS4 section of the competition.

Dr Vicky Stratford, head of science, said: “The team work was impressive and we were especially proud of our KS4 team’s performance. Well done to Alice, Aniela, Lottie, Yuriy, Tim and Jeremy. We wish them good luck in the finals.”