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

In January, 117 of our students entered the Chemistry Olympiad. While the challenging 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%), 40 silver (top 33%) and 43 bronze (top 70%) awards. This included one first year, Coke, achieving gold - a really fantastic achievement.

We had similar success in the Biology Olympiad with 106 students entering. 14 students achieved silver and 17 achieved bronze with a further 43 students receiving commendations.

In May, we had 17 teams entering the RSC Analyst competition. Students completed several tricky practicals with minimal teacher involvement. Our winning team was made up of Fiona, Gail and Luke.

Many of our students entered Oxford's Big Think competition. Students gave presentations on 'big questions' in their chosen subject. Yasmin won the chemistry award for her presentation on forever chemicals. Rebeca and Joseph received commendations for their biochemistry presentations on creating artificial life in the lab. Ben, another chemistry student, received a commendation in the history category, presenting on the purpose of history.

In June, 84 of our first year students entered the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. 10 students received gold awards (top 10%). 60 students also entered the Biology Intermediate Olympiad, with 6 achieving gold (top 5%). Yasmin got the top score in both of these competitions.

All of these supercurricular 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 and Lead Teacher for Oxbridge, said “It's been great to see over a hundred students competing in both biology and chemistry Olympiads. Top universities, degree apprentice providers and employers really like to see students challenging themselves and succeeding in these supercurricular activities. We have 12 students heading to Oxbridge next year to study biology, biochemistry, chemistry, natural sciences or medicine and with these results, we should have even more next year.”