ONE of East Lancashire's smallest schools took on the big boys and won in a national competition.

St Joseph's RC Primary School, Hurst Green, was one of three East Lancs schools in the final of the national Primary Engineer Project at the Eureka Centre, in Halifax.

Aimed at testing the technical initiative of children in Key Stage One and Two, the pupils were presented with the challenge of making a small four-wheel vehicle that could climb a ramp.

St Joseph's model took on the rest and led the team of Jodie Walsh, 11, and Jordan Davies, 11, to victory in the Key Stage 2 section.

With only 48 pupils the Ribble Valley school is one of the smallest in the area but size proved no barrier to success.

Headteacher Linda Wilkinson said: "We are very proud because other schools are three, or four, times bigger.

"They've loved it and it's made them really confident."

In the Key Stage One category, Our Lady and St Hubert's RC Primary School, Great Harwood took the honours.

The Primary Engineer competition, which is run by Great Harwood-based Primary Engineer Ltd, aims to inspire children to develop their engineering skills as the designers and makers' of the future, is now set to become a national event.

Project manager Susan Scurlock said: "The kids were so full of what they'd done and what they'd achieved, it was really impressive."

Primary Engineer Ltd, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote the design and technology part of the syllabus.

The company has just established training centres in the south of England and bosses hope that next year's competition will attract over 200 schools compared to the 70 or so that took part this year.

The top three winning teams in each category won a trophy and each finalist also received a medal as well as the two winning schools each receiving a state-of-the-art interactive voting set worth £2000 from Promethean.