The chemistry department of Ysgol Dyffryn Taf made it a hat-trick of hat-tricks by winning the 2008 Royal Society of Chemistry's 'Chemical Olympiad'. The school has now won the competition 10 times in the last 16 years - a period during which no other school has won it more than once.
The team of four, Charlie Kind (Year 8), Zoe Thomas (Year 9), Florence Bowen-Rees (Year 10) and captain Josephine Maidment (Year 11) won five rounds to win the coveted title.
Over 30 schools in the area from as far away as Porthcawl and Brecon compete annually.
Dyffryn Taf beat Ysgol Emlyn, St. John Lloyd (Llanelli), Bishop Gore (Swansea), Coedcae (Llanelli) and, in the final, Ffynone House School (Swansea).
The team will now go on to the national 'Top of the Bench' competition in London at Easter. Last year, Dyffryn Taf achieved a very creditable seventh place (out of 30) in the 2008 'Top of the Bench'.
The school would like to acknowledge the RSC for their organisation of the competition - having written in excess of 9,000 questions since its inception - and the Huntsman Corporation, Bynea, Llanelli, for their continued sponsorship.
Pupils Exhibit Award-Winning F1 Car at Wales Rally GB
Pupils from Dyffryn Taf School attended the Performance Engineering Education Consortium (PEEC) Conference held at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea on Saturday, December 6.
The conference started with an early morning breakfast and was followed by presentations from Italian car designer, Maurizo Corbi from Pininfarina, and Colin Smith, the engineering and design director of Modec, a Coventry based firm that produces environmentally friendly electric powered delivery vehicles for Tesco.
Members of Team Dragon, Dyffryn Taf's Young Engineers Club, put on a display of the trophies they have won over the past 12 months, including the award for Best Young Engineer Club in Wales. The display also included their award-winning F1 car which helped them win the regional finals of the F1 in Schools Challenge in Swansea last month.
Andrew Davies AM, the Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery, spoke to Team Dragon captain, Lewis Williams, about the work of the club and their chances of winning the national finals of the F1 in Schools Challenge due to be held at Autosport International, NEC in Birmingham, next January.
After the conference, delegates visited the Wales Rally GB service park to watch the cars as they came into the pits for repairs and servicing.