This term some of our Year 11 and 12 students entered the British Physics Olympiad AS and Physics GCSE Challenge competitions. These are annual competitions hosted by the University of Oxford, which are highly challenging and are designed to test students’ logical thinking and problem-solving skills in a physics context.

Eleven Year 12 A-level and IB Physics students entered the British Physics Olympiad AS Challenge, which gave them the opportunity to stretch their lateral thinking skills and apply fundamental physical principles to novel situations. Tabitha John, Arya Ma, and Alyssa McGoldrick achieved a Bronze Level 2, which meant that they came in the top 46 % of the 3,500 students who entered the competition from around the UK. Genevieve Baller, Honor Erskine, Jess Hill, Abbey Leung, Maia Lunt, Isabella Mexi-Jones, Lilli Platt and Clara Williams were awarded a Commendation for their results.

A week later fourteen Year 11 students entered the Physics Challenge competition. Sofia Kover-Wolf, Cindy Li and Katie Stubbs achieved a Bronze Level 1 award, which meant that they came in the top 31 % of the 2,200 students who entered the competition from around the UK. Commendations were awarded to Elena Balfagon-Costa, Emily Bleakley, Yoyo Chien, Bethany Ede, Darcy Gresham, Mathura Kathirgamanathan, Lucia Liu, Poppy Newman, Tegan Rowlands, Honor Weaver, and Tammy Wong.

These are fantastic achievements for which all of the students are to be congratulated, and we look forward to continued success in these competitions next year.