CHILDREN from a Bournemouth school have made it to the finals of a television quiz show.

Youngsters in year six at St James’ Church Of England Academy appeared in Top Class, which will be aired on CBBC today.

To make it into the final, the team won all their preliminary rounds, including a semi-final against a team from Millburn Primary School in Northern Ireland.

The final, which will take place on Friday at 3.55pm on the CBBC channel, will see students battle it out before the 'top class' is crowned.

In a nail-biting semi-final, St James' pupils faced disqualification after struggling to get off the starting blocks.

The youngsters trailed by eight points to zero at the end of the second round.

However, they clawed back points to win the round by answering a series of tough questions, including the meaning of the word ‘onomatopoeia’.

The pupils also aced the spelling and maths round.

Eventually, the team won narrowly by 27 points to 25.

St James' teacher Beth Dodd was also put on the spot, facing a quiz on pop culture.

Mrs Dodd has been the highest performing teacher in the competition, managing to identify Miley Cyrus songs and Jessica Ennis-Hill’s birthplace.

The principal of the school, Jeremy Payne, said: “The whole community here at St James’ is hugely proud of the team’s performance - they’ve challenged themselves and gone out of their comfort zone with fantastic results. "For us, it is how we travel the journey, and not the destination we reach that matters, but to make it all the way to the final is an amazing achievement.

"However it goes on Friday, we couldn't be prouder of them.”

Top Class is a national TV quiz show similar in style to University Challenge.

All contestants are 10 and 11 years old.

Every school in the UK was invited to enter the competition.