STAR pupil Claude Warnick, who attends the Royal Grammar School, is off to Turkey as captain of a British schools physics team.

Claude,18, who was this morning sitting an A-level physics exam, won a place on the British Schools Physics Team to the International Physics Olympiad.

The event, to be held in Turkey from June 28 to July 6, is one of the most prestigious schools competitions in the world.

The competition involves national teams being set challenges and having to come up with solutions.

Claude took first place in the National Physics Olympiad held a few months ago.

He was awarded his gold medal prize at a ceremony at the Royal Society, an established intellectual body, in London in the presence of the Astronomer Royal.

In the final stages of his preparations, he was coached by a former Royal Grammar School old boy and physicist Anton Macacek.

Roger Pantridge, head of sixth form at the school, described Claude as a model pupil.

He said: "He is the brightest pupil that we have seen in some time. But there are other sides to him as well as the academic.

"He spent part of last summer working with the disabled at a holiday group. He is a well liked, very pleasant, very articulate young man."

Claude has been offered a place at Queen's College Cambridge to read mathematics and hopes to do research after he graduates.

After achieving more than 10 A*s during his GCSEs, Claude has also been involved with the Combined Cadet Force.

Mr Pantridge said: "He is a super young man and this is a great honour for such a model candidate.

"There is not much that he hasn't done and got top marks for."