Following their first-ever win in last year's annual structural engineering competition, Mount House hosted this year's event in the school's Wortham Hall.

The competition, which is run as part of the INPUT programme under the auspices of the Institute of Structural Engineers, was attended by lecturers and students from Exeter and Plymouth Universities.

As well as several teams from Mount House School, youngsters from Tavistock College, Launceston College and Kelly College competed.

The challenge was to design and make a structure, a two-kilogram weight at a height of one metre, and a one kilogram weight at a height of 2.5 metres. The structure had to be constructed of paper tubes made by rolling sheets of A3 paper.

Before they set about the task, the children were given a brief lesson on structural engineering by John Allen from INPUT International.

The completed structures were to be tested by the judges to make sure they could carry the specified loads, and of those which passed the lightest would be declared the winner.

The general standard of the structures was high, with almost all proving capable of carrying the weights.

The competition was declared a draw between Tavistock College and the all-girls' team from Mount House School, with both weighing in at 1.6 kilograms.