A FOOTBALL team of brainy pupils from a St Albans school has been accepted into Mensa.

Eleven pupils at Nicholas Breakspear School in Colney Heath Lane proved they are not just top of the class but top in the country after being accepted into the high IQ organisation.

The students put themselves to the test by taking a one-hour mental reasoning exam, set by Mensa.

The results showed that the students, from Year 7 to Year 11, qualified to join the organisation by demonstrating an IQ of over 148, which puts them in the top two per cent of people in the country.

The pupils are Rifat Choudhury, Callum Britton, Ewan Wilson, Eilish Saunders, Aoife Cassidy, Kieran Mekota, Dominika Chmurzynska, Amish Jethwa, George Singleton, Robert Hunter and Matthew Hearn.

Maths teacher Ellen Brown, who is a member of Mensa, said: “People who join Mensa don’t really wear badges but they come from all walks of life and from very different backgrounds. I am thrilled that so many of our students at Nicholas Breakspear have proved just how clever they are, even though I’m a bit jealous that a few of them got higher scores than me. Well done to them all.”