Pupils are gearing up for success

The Year 5 children spent months, often staying behind after school, fine-tuning their cars, pit areas, portfolios and presentations in preparation for the competition.

The classmates from the school in Wheatley Lane Road, Fence, also contacted local businesses for sponsorship, support and advice for the event held at Halewood, in Merseyside.

The judges were impressed by all three teams’ efforts, with them topping a variety of categories including best verbal presentation, best pit display, portfolio and fastest car.

Fired-Up 4 – pupils Lola Creswell, Tegan Dinsdale, Matthew Griffiths and Sydney Wilson – gained first place, with The Eliminators and ZEAZ Speedos finishing second and third respectively.

Lola said: “The Jaguar Challenge is a great competition and an extraordinary experience.

“We have learnt how to make decisions as a team and how to design and assemble a car, even if was made out of card.

“We have really enjoyed the opportunities the Challenge has given us.”

Fired-Up 4 will represent the North West at the national final held in Coventry next month.

But the Eliminators now face an anxious wait to see if the team qualifies as the highest scoring runner-up.

The youngsters hope to continue the school’s success in the competition after team Turbo won the “Additional Challenge” award at last year’s final.

Teacher Helen Parker said: “This is a challenge the whole class has been involved in and choosing three teams to represent the school at the regional finals was very hard.

“These three teams had to put in many extra hours and thoroughly deserved to do as well as they did.

“Fired–Up 4 are very excited about going to the national finals and are already looking at how they can make improvements.

“Hopefully, Eliminators will be joining them too.”