BOARDING school pupils have trumped their teachers by dealing them a particularly crafty hand of cards.

Teenage business studies students at the Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, given an exercise in forming a company and making it pay, came up with a card game featuring school staff which rates them for strictness and coolness, place in the hierarchy and length of service.

There is nothing new about it. It is simply a new edition of Top Trumps, a game that was the rage of playgrounds in the 1970s and has had a revival in recent years, with versions featuring characters as diverse as Manchester United footballers and characters from Roald Dahl books.

In the Ipswich version, Mr Blackett gets 10 for top hierarchy rating but then he is the headmaster — and a major shareholder in the company. Mr Gladwin, the deputy head, gets top rating for cool while Mr Simmons, the head of business studies, earns top marks for strictness.

They have sold 300 sets at £3 each and hope soon to achieve their business target of 450 sets.

Richard Wyatt, 16, company secretary to the venture, said: “Our Teacher Trumps depicts serious and fun images. There is also some editorial on each card, advertising the interesting and crazy life of our teachers.”

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