NOVA Hreod Academy pupils have won a national competition to design an app aimed to help children with their maths homework.

On Tuesday the ‘Maths Homework – How can I Help?’ smartphone app went on sale in the AppStore after Year 9 students Shaina Ahktar, Charlotte King and Aimee Robinson beat off competition from 180 other designs in 37 schools across the country.

The competition, which was run by 7billionideas and schools group United Learning, which includes Nova Hreod Academy, was set up to introduce students to the world of coding and to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and team work.

The girls said: “We feel really proud of our app. It is strange as we never thought we would get to the final let alone see it in the app store.

"We just want the app to help as many parents as possible be able to help their children with maths.”

The winning app supports primary school parents to help their children with maths homework, and offers both definitions and tips for a range of keywords from the Maths National Curriculum.

It is also divided into Years 1 to 6 to make it easy for parents to navigate to the subjects their children will be studying that year.

After winning the competition, the students worked with experts at United Learning to develop it into an app before putting it on sale.

Nova Hreod's headteacher Darren Barton said: “I am delighted for our girls.

"Winning this national competition is incredibly impressive.

"The girls have worked incredibly hard researching the Key Stage 1 and 2 Maths National Curriculum and have used this to develop a range of helpful definitions and tips to help parents support their children with maths.

"This will be a very useful app and is credit to their ingenuity, creativity and coding skills.”

United Learning's chief executive Jon Coles said: “I would like to congratulate Shaina, Charlotte and Aimee on winning the competition.

"Their idea for the app was spot-on and will be very useful to parents of primary pupils in helping them with their homework.

"They have beaten many other excellent entrants to win this competition and can be very proud of their success.”

7billionideas' CEO David Harkin said: “This was the first year 7billionideas collaborated with United Learning to create #UnitedApp2015 and we couldn’t be prouder of the outcome.

"The winning students from Nova Hreod are an example of the fantastic creative minds across United Learning.

"Over 800 students took part in the competition."

and the team should be immensely proud to have their own app live in the AppStore. Not many teenagers can say that.”