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Niki is the new 2012 Junior Memory Champion!

Nikita Mehta is officially the best young learner in the UK. The Year 6 pupil from The Red Maid's School became the new national Junior Memory Champion on Sunday 27th May, winning an exciting final at London Zoo and recording some truly impressive results.

Niki was one of 16 finalists who had congregated in London from all over the UK. These were the top performers in a series of memory tests taken by thousands of children online. Since September they had all been following a specially-written training programme, preparing to take part in The Junior Memory Championship - organised by The Learning Skills Foundation.

Niki Mehta with Jonathan Hancock

At London Zoo the best 16 children were put through their paces by the championship's Founder, former World Memory Champion Jonathan Hancock. They were challenged to learn facts about London, as well as numbers, words, and a collection of names and faces.

The competition was fierce, but in the end Niki's performances gave her the top overall score. She won two of the four challenges and recorded the second-highest score in another. Her outstanding achievements included memorizing 36 digits, recalling a sequence of 35 random words, scoring 98% in the names-and-faces test and 100% accuracy in a memory quiz about London history.

Seth Blake from Alleyn's School was second. He also scored 100% on the history challenge, and remembered 42 random words in perfect order.

Jonathan Hancock with Seth Blake, Niki Mehta and Alan Blackman-Rogers

Third place went to Alan Blackman-Rogers from Denmead School. Among his impressive achievements was scoring 100% on the names-and-faces test.

Jonathan Hancock said: 'On a scorching day, competition was also red hot, and once again I was thrilled by the children's performances. They proved that the learning techniques I've taught them really work, and that even 10 and 11 year old children can perform incredible feats of memory. It's a big deal to travel to a final like this and test your brain under pressure, so they deserve to be very proud of themselves. A big thankyou again to all their teachers. It was great to hear that the children are already putting their training to use in school, and I hope they'll continue to show this level of confidence in their memory skills - and keep setting themselves such high standards for their learning'.

Since its launch in 2008, the Junior Memory Championship has introduced memory techniques to thousands of children.

Caroline Shott, CEO of The Learning Skills Foundation said: "We are delighted to support Jonathan Hancock in establishing the Junior Memory Championship. This is a wonderful project, bringing powerful memory techniques to the front line of learning. In its first four years, The Junior Memory Championship has become very popular with teachers and children alike as they see the very real benefits of memory skills".

2012 JMC Finalists with Jonathan Hancock

Schools are now able to register for the 2013 Junior Memory Championship.

To organize interviews, obtain photographs, or for more details about the Junior Memory Championship and The Learning Skills Foundation, please contact : office@learningskillsfoundation.com.

The Junior Memory Championship is a pioneering educational project from The Learning Skills Foundation^®.

Now in its fifth year, the competition promotes memory techniques in schools, working with teachers to introduce pupils to the benefits of powerful learning strategies.

When you register, your children will be eligible to compete in the online stages of the Championship in March 2013.

When you take part in the JMC you receive:

an INSET pack to welcome you to the project

video clips explaining the key learning techniques

a full memory training programme for the Year 6 children in your school, plus extra lessons to use in the run-up to the competition itself

a wide range of detailed lesson plans, weaving memory training into the curriculum

materials to develop learning skills in other year-groups and throughout your school community

access for all your children to the online Junior Memory Club®

The short in-school training sessions help children to develop powerful memory strategies that will help them in every area of their education. Then, in March 2013, your Year 6 children take a series of online memory challenges, testing their learning skills against competitors from around the country. The children with the best scores are invited to the Final in London in May 2013 at which the new Junior Memory Champion will be crowned.

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