AN ASCOT teacher has nabbed a spot at the World Memory Championship after securing a silver medal during the national contest in London this summer.

James Paterson, a psychology teacher at LVS Ascot, came second in the UK Memory Championships at the end of August, securing his place at the international competition to be held in China and setting a new UK record for memorisation at the same time.

He successfully memorised the order of 242 random words in just 15 minutes, beating his own personal best of 224 words.

Mr Paterson also finished second in the UK championship last year, but this year he beat two of his personal bests.

He said: “The last leg was memorising a shuffled deck of cards which I managed in 1 minute 39 seconds, beating my personal best and pushing my score into the qualification zone for the World Championships.

“A lot of The memory techniques which I employ are ones that can be really useful for students to help them learn subjects and prepare for exams."

He was pipped to the top spot by Londoner Marlo Knight but regained his title of Welsh Memory Champion.

His silver medal was presented to him by Tony Buzan, founder of the World Memory Championships and inventor of mind-mapping.

Principal of LVS Ascot Christine Cunniffe said: “We are all really proud of James and his achievement. Our teachers who excel outside school are always keen to use their knowledge to help our pupils benefit too. Aside from being truly inspiring for them to see one of their teachers achieving great things, James’ skills have been weaved into revision workshops that have been a real success.”