This year our students have had great success in several challenging chemistry competitions. 

In January, 85 of our students entered the Chemistry Olympiad. Students sat a paper posing several complex problems. While the competition is aimed at second year students, many of our first years also entered and had great success. Our students received 6 gold (top 8%), 20 silver (top 33%) and 44 bronze (top 70%) awards. Three of our students were longlisted for the next round of the competition - Hrishi, Rory and Lachlan, Second year students.

In May, we had 25 teams entering the RSC Analyst competition. Students completed several tricky practicals with minimal teacher involvement. Our winning team was made up of Lidia, Zara and Shrishti.

Many of our students entered Oxford's Big Think competition. Students gave presentations on 'big questions' in their chosen subject. Amara, First year student won the chemistry award for her presentation on Quantum Dots and Evie, First year student won the biochemistry award for a presentation on 'Do Our Genes Define Who We Are?'. More details about the competition and their presentations are available here.

In June, 58 of our first year students entered the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. 7 students achieved a gold (top 10%), 16 silver (top 33%) and 20 copper (top 60%) awards. 

These competitions have given our students a great opportunity to explore beyond the curriculum, prepare themselves for future study and look great on applications to higher education. 

Simon Wood, Senior Curriculum Manager Chemistry, said “It's been great to see a year on year improvement in participation in these competitions - and we've had our best results ever. These competitions really support students with applications to competitive universities. Last year 10 of our 17 applicants to Oxbridge for chemistry-related courses got offers and with these results we should be able to maintain that incredibly high conversion rate.”