STUDENTS from 11 primary schools in Weymouth and Portland battled it out to be crowned maths champions.

Youngsters tackled different problems from fractions to estimates and equations during the day held at Budmouth College last week.

The reigning champions from 2013, St Andrew’s, returned to try and hold on to the crown, but Southill primary school stole the title and were crowned the winners for 2014.

They scored a total of 41 points, narrowly beating Conifers, who came in second place 39 points, and Chickerell, who took third with 38 points.

They were presented with the coveted Maths Challenge shield in recognition of their achievements.

One of the organisers at Budmouth College Stewart Dennis said: “What we have is 11 primary schools from across Weymouth and Portland taking part in a series of challenges involving technology, estimation and problem solving.”

Students in one class were given three numbers, two nines or sixes and a one and had to complete a series of mathematical questions. When they were asked to make the smallest number possible out of the three numbers, one group from St George’s Primary School came up with an ingenious solution and turned the one into a minus sign to make the lowest answer of -99.

Drew, 10, from the group said they had done a number of tasks during the morning, including estimating the length of rope, the number of grams of spaghetti in various cups and the number of pints in a tube of plastic cups.

He said the challenges had been ‘quite difficult’ and added it had been a bit ‘tense’.

Head of Maths at Budmouth College Steve Hardy said they had a really good day and he had been impressed. by the problem solving abilities of the students.