A team of five students at Beccles Free School have been crowned junior world robotics champions at an international competition in Germany.

Representing their school and country in Leipzig at the weekend, the pupils, who worked under the team name Tempest, faced their counterparts from Japan, Taiwan, Portugal and China before beating Croatia in the final of the competition.

The CoSpace Robotics RoboCup is a computer coding competition where young programmers from around the world compete in computer-based robotics challenges including picking up objects and avoiding traps.

It tests the pupils’ ability to write code and program robots as well as develop mathematical skills.

Johann Don-Daniel, robotics team lead at Beccles Free School, said: “We are completely amazed at the exceptional achievement of our RoboCup team, and we are so proud that they have brought home the junior world champions trophy.

“The team works incredibly well together and have shown fantastic dedication in preparing for the competition.”

This is the second year the school has represented the UK in the RoboCup competition, after coming second at the competition in China last year.

Team captain Sam Florido, a Year 9 pupil who competed in China in 2015, said: “We had so much motivation because we came in second place last year, it was such an achievement it made us think it was possible to get that one step further.

“We were really determined.”