St George's four victorious students from November's Top of the Bench BeNeLux eliminator round attended the finals at Cardiff University on 29 March. The competition pitted the 28 regional winners against each other to determine an overall champion.

The first round was a written test. The two Year 9, Kaloyan and Ema, students worked together on the 'Younger Paper' while our Year 10 and Year 11 students, Emese and Idan, tackled the 'Older Paper'. They all came out feeling happy with their efforts.

For round two's group activity the students worked together to complete an experiment, analyse the data and then apply their findings to a new scenario. Unfortunately the teachers were not allowed to watch, but we were kept busy with an interactive look at some of the resources provided by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The team were again happy with their efforts and seemed to have enjoyed the challenge.

We all then attended a lecture on careers in chemistry while the RSC staff marked the efforts from the day. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring back the trophy but the students' application and effort were a credit to themselves and to the BeNeLux region.