THE Olympic stars of the future will battle it out in the pool today when 11 girls from a Summertown school travel to a national gala.

The Cherwell School's team will compete in the English Schools Swimming Association Secondary Schools Team Championships in London.

They will swim in the same lanes at the Aquatics Centre where British Olympians won medals in the 2012 London Olympic.

It is the third year in a row that The Cherwell School has qualified for the finals, which are see the top 30 schools in the county go head to head.

The school's head of PE Neil Busby said he was hopeful of a strong showing from the girls.

He said: "Our junior girls qualified in fifth place out of 260 schools in the country and they were only about one second away from being in second place.

"They are our biggest hope for coming in the top three, which is our aim.

"Getting to the gala is a fantastic achievement and recognition of the amazing work, time and commitment that all the girls, their families and City of Oxford Swimming Club put in."

All but one of the girls are members of the club.

The Cherwell School does not teach swimming but many pupils train elsewhere and then compete for the school at tournaments such as today's gala.

Mr Busby said: "It is about finding out what pupils are swimmers and taking them out and getting them swimming.

"We are reaping the rewards of all the good work that the swimming club does really.

"It is like the work we do with most other sports clubs in the city."

Pupils from Cherwell will compete in both the junior girls and senior girls in both freestyle and medley relays.

The junior girls team consists of Greta Goodgame, Evie McLean, Megan Smit and Illianze Pinfold while Weiyi Tan, Emily Nisbet, Olivia Webster, Amy Coombs, Emily Wood, Lily Seaward and Dotty Goodgame will compete for the senior girls.

The gala has attracted schools from across England which will provide stiff competition.

Mr Busby said: "Some of the schools which will be there have top British swimming coaches.

"But we are hopeful and when you see our girls swimming their technique through the water really is amazing.

"They are just unbelievably strong."

The event starts at 1pm and will finish by 5pm, with results available at essa-schoolswimming.com/live_results/