TWO teams of students from Devizes School and Dauntsey's School will be challenging the Bank of England over the level of interest rates in a national competition.

Teams from more than 230 schools and colleges are competing in the Bank of England interest rate challenge, run in conjunction with The Times newspaper.

The teams, consisting of four pupils aged 16 to 18, will be taking part in a regional heat against two other schools on November 29 in Bristol.

Each team has to give a 15 minute presentation to a panel of Bank of England judges on what level of interest rates they would set to meet the Government's inflation target of 2.5 per cent.

The competition gives students the chance to learn more about how the economy works, how interest rates affect inflation and the dilemmas faced by the Monetary Policy Committee which decides the level of interest rates.

The team from Devizes School spent its half term break interviewing local businesses to gather views before putting together their strategy.

Roger Croft, head of business at Devizes School, said: "Not many people understand why interest rates go up and down and this gives the students the opportunity to study the issue. They have almost finished putting together their report and the feeling is at the moment that interest rates should stay the same."