A PUPIL at Stephen's High with a passion for writing and science has won a competition run by one of the world's top universities.

Second year student Abi Hoodless was awarded first place by St Andrews University for her essay on 18th century Greenock scientist James Watt, who refined the steam engine and helped fuel the Industrial Revolution.

The Port Glasgow school's English and science departments teamed up for the joint project Science Fiction Make Believem, with over 30 pupils taking part.

They were thrilled by the success, which also saw Abi's classmate Luke Gill named one of the four runners up. 

The St Stephen's pair were chosen from hundreds of entries submitted by secondary schools across the country.

Delighted Abi,13, said: "We were asked to pick a scientist and write about them and I picked James Watt because he was from Greenock and he is so interesting.

"I wrote about the steam engine, how his ideas came about and how his family links with the slave trade also led him to support abolition.

"I love both science and English, so this was perfect. But I definitely want to go down the road of engineering or something like that. There are so many opportunities at St Stephen's."

Fellow second year pupil Luke, also 13, picked another great Scottish inventor, Alexander Graham Bell to focus on.

He said: "I liked the fact that we have mobile phones in our hands but none of it would have happened without Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone."

Science teacher Sean Stevens, who led the project with the English teacher Stuart Renshaw, is proud of the pupils' success.

Mr Stevens said: "It was a fantastic achievement to get so many of our pupils involved but for Abi to win and Luke to be a runner up is an incredible achievement.

"We are so proud of them and think they deserve the recognition. It is a proud moment for our school.

"They are both such hard working pupils."

English teacher Mr Renshaw added: "Anything we can do to get pupils writing creatively is brilliant and there was such a high standard of work from the pupils. 

"So many schools took part so they did really well."