After watching Britain's brainiest children battle it out for Channel 4's Child Genius title last year, 12-year-old Sasha Gordon told her mum: "I think I could give that a go."

Now the Henrietta Barnett pupil is featuring in this year's competition, the first episode of which was broadcast on Tuesday.

Sasha was undeterred by the fact that many of last year's competitors were coached from birth in everything from Latin to degree-level history. "I guess I'm clever but I'm not pushed to be."

The challenge had been "quite a bit different to what I thought it was going to be. It was hard work and I had to revise a lot." History, English and drama are her key topics.

The 20 participants have had to swot up on specialist subjects and tough trivia to progress through the five week series, with four eliminated in each episode. Sasha would say only that she did "quite well. I go to a very academic school and I'm not the cleverest there. I didn't think I'd get very far to be honest but it has been great."

Her mother, Claire, said: "I always knew Sasha was bright. But we were curious to see how she would do. Her sisters were really excited about it and her older sister helped her revise, which was sweet.

"Sasha is also a bit of feminist. She has always had a book in her hand and taught herself to read at age three."