GIGGLESWICK School students have beaten the stock exchange to take top honours in an annual "share race" competition.

Seven students from Giggleswick School travelled to Leeds last Thursday to receive their prizes and get an opportunity to check out the dealing screens at the offices of competition organisers, BWD Rensburg Investment Management.

The competition, now in its third year, involved 19 sixth-form schools and colleges throughout Yorkshire competing for the best return on a portfolio of investments listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market.

The teams of students each began the competition with an imaginary £100,000 to invest over a six month period. Giggleswick School finished with a total of £112,740, a rise of 12.7 per cent, beating second placed St Peter's School, from York who finished with £107,995 - a gain of eight per cent.

David Lowery, of BWD Rensburg said: "The teams have all done exceptionally well in difficult trading conditions and must be congratulated on their efforts.

"The top four teams performed better than the FTSE All Share index of 3.3 per cent for the overall period.

"Giggleswick School, in particular, worked hard to make the most of their early success and constantly used sales proceeds and profits wisely to diversify into other stocks."

Giggleswick School teacher Paul Adams, whose team last year claimed second prize, said: "The race has given the pupils an excellent grasp of the complexities of the stock market and a greater understanding of what drives share prices.

Giggleswick School won £1,000 and a silver trophy with CD tokens for the students.

The winning team members were James Illingworth, Richard Wilson, Sam Jenkins, Tom York, Sarah Brownley, Luke Grose, Sally Coates, David Hassell, Mike Astakhov and Max Deitermann.