The Computing department is pleased to announce further success in two competitions. The tasks to solve were of a really high level, yet an impressive number of pupils gained certificates of Merit or Distinction.
The Oxford University Computing Challenge
Oxford Computing Challenge is a coding/programming competition open to all Bebras qualifiers in the top 10% in the country, as well as keen programmers.
Thirty-five students managed to practise independently prior to the day of this competition, and participate. The tasks to solve were at a really high level, yet we are very pleased to report the following have gained certificates of Merit or Distinction:
- Reuben Smith, L4, Distinction
- Thomas Stapely, U4, Distinction
- Rebecca Jensen, 3F, Merit
- Benjamin Senior, L4, Merit
- Saira Patel, L6, Merit
- Max Stoddard, L6, Merit
The Perse Team Coding Challenge
Twenty-five students from Middle Fourth, Upper Fourth and Fifth Form participated in this competition for the first time this year. All programmer teams came forward voluntarily. There are quite a few programming languages available to be used, but our students coded their tasks in Python, continuing the excellent work completed in lessons by our team of Computer Science teachers.
The tasks’ level of difficulty varied between easy to quite complex, and two teams managed to achieve full marks. They are Viktor Chistyakov, who decided to ‘go solo’, and the Thomas Stapely and Sean Lung team.
The following is the list of all certificates achieved by our students:
- Viktor Chistyakov M4 – Distinction and Best in School (Junior category)
- Thomas Stapely U4 and Sean Lung U4 – Distinction and Best in School (Senior category)
- Harry Shan and James Durup M4 – Distinction
- Sam Clinton and Pan Xanthakos M4 – Distinction
- Selim Ardac 5F and Max Moir 5F – Distinction
- Milo FitzHugh 5F and Connor Mullen-Brandler 5F – Distinction
- Alex Braine and Bryce Whitley – Merit
- Olessia Zhevago and Tianyi Hou – Merit
- Hector Buzzacott and Freddie Butler – Merit
- Leo Skingley and Joshua Crockett – Merit
- Max Darling and Kris Georgiev – Merit
Without exception, all participants enjoyed the new challenge, the interesting tasks, the competition format, as well as significantly developed their teamwork skills in an academic context.
We now have three new teams who qualified for round two #persecodingteamchallenge, practising when they can, to be ready to flex their coding skills against the best from those schools who entered. I am sure the incentive of lifting the Braben Cup at the end, and the prize money available for the top three teams, has contributed to their motivation.
The candidates who achieved a Distinction will go on to participate in round two of this contest, against the very best in the 140 schools who took part this year. There is prize money for each candidate who ends up in the top three winning teams, and the overall victors will be able to raise the Braben Cup.
By Sorina Biletchi, Head of Computing
