TWO Blackburn schoolboys are national engineering champions.

Year Six pupils Gareth Johnson and Joe Lightbown competed against 12 regional champions to claim the top spot at the finals of the Primary National Engineering Award 2007, held at Darwen Vale High School and Engineering College.

The boys, pupils at The Redeemer Primary, won £3,000 of equipment for the Jack Walker Way school and received a digital camera, construction set, books and CD ROMs.

Their winning entry was a Blackburn Rovers themed car, the quality of which impressed the independent judges.

Sponsored by Promethean, the Blackburn-based firm which makes interactive learning technologies, the competition is part of a national initiative for boys and girls to develop interests and skills and consider engineering as a career.

Alison Taylor, headteacher at The Redeemer, said: "I am so proud of Gareth and Joe and their families."