Students who came first and second in the Royal Society of Chemistry's 5-Decade Exam Challenge were presented their awards by Dr Richard Pike, RSC Chief Executive.

Nathan Brown and Aled Walker, from King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, Birmingham, performed outstandingly in the national competition run by the RSC in June, scoring 94 per cent and 87 per cent respectively.

The national average mark for the competition was just 25 per cent. Questions were taken from five decades' worth of O-level and GCSE chemistry papers, focusing largely on mathematically-oriented problems.