EIGHT Spennymoor students won gold in a competition that aims to get more young people involved in engineering and to consider it as a future career.

A team of year nine pupils from Whitworth School and Sixth Form College worked with the Engineering Development Trust to design an eco-hotel as part of a ten week Go4SET project which ended with an event at Northumbria University.

Their creation, called El Appartmento Ecologica, beat teams from all over the region to win the competition and gold cup prize.

Judge Jim Donnelly, of Banks Mining, said not only did they show great inventiveness but produced a high quality accompanying report.

Teacher Mark Brown said: “As always, I am amazed by the dedication and commitment of our students.

“There is no doubt that Whitworth Park has some extremely capable engineers of the future, this victory has shown us that we not only have the potential to compete with the best, we have the potential to be leaders in the field of engineering.”

Team captain Johah Younghusband said: “The project has enabled me to improve my knowledge of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, but also my knowledge of life skills such as communication and organisation.”