FIVE budding engineers from year nine took home the runners-up trophy for Penketh High School after impressing at a competition.

Year nine’s Connor Jepson, Stan Smith, Matthew Carman, Jack Wareing and Bradley Newton reached the North West regional finals in Manchester of the Create Sport Challenge by researching and designing a new sports stadium.

The pupils were mentored by Thomas Coon from the Institute Of Civil Engineers (ICE) and sixth former Alex Treanor.

Thomas said: “I couldn’t believe how much they had taken in and remembered from all the sessions we had done.  Also their confidence and presentation skills have doubled since they started this and the judges were very impressed with the way they put forward their proposal.”

The project was overseen and facilitated by Assistant Head Miss S Jones who ran the after school and lunchtime sessions where the team researched their ideas and built their model.