Prior's Biathlon squad performed brilliantly in the British Schools Modern Biathlon championships held in February at Macclesfield.

They got through to the finals after winning through the regional round. The girls' team were overall winners while the boys were runners-up. They will be presented with their certificates by Stephen Whitehead, principal on Tuesday, April 29 in the sports hall.

Team members: girls, Laura Welford, Erin Pearson, Becki Livingston; boys, James Silk, David O'Reilly, Paul Walton.

Prior's sporting achievements do not end there. This year no less than 25 of their students won through regional competitions to represent the North-East at the British Colleges Sport National championships held at Loughborough on April 4-6. This includes the whole of the netball team.

Medals were won in the table tennis, swimming and cross country as follows: table tennis, Simon Donnelly won bronze in his first attempt at the finals.

Swimming: Laura Welford won gold and did her personal best time in both 50m and 100m freestyle. Craig Granger won his individual events and gained a silver as a member of the North-East squad which cam second overall.

Cross country: The tam won silver with Johanna Jackson fifth out of 70 and Angharad Owen 12th. Kirstie Kohling, sports teacher at the college, said: "It has been a tremendous year for the individuals and the college. To have 25 students qualifying from one college, including the whole of the netball team, shows what high levels of performance we have at Prior."

Five second year chemistry students at the college were entered for the international chemistry Olympiad organised by the Royal Society of Chemists in February and we have just heard of their remarkable successes in achieving a gold, three silver and a bronze.

The students are gold: Toju Sillo (ex Queen's College, Lagos); silver: Michael Osborne (ex-Bydales), Ben Thorpe (ex-Ormesby) and Ben Tyreman (ex-Huntcliff); bronze: Kate Shields (ex-Laurence Jackson).

There were 671 entries all together by achieving gold, Toju has become one of the top 47 chemistry students in the country.

Nigel Durie, chemistry teacher at the college, said: "It is the first time that one of our students has achieved a gold in the Olympiad. To have three silvers and a bronze award as well is the icing on the cake. We are tremendously proud of all of them."