UK Education News

A large group of A-Level Physics students from King Edward VI College have received awards in the British Physics Olympiad 2011.

The British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) aims to encourage the study of Physics and recognise excellence in young physicists through four annual Physics competitions. It is a prestigious competition which has run for 25 years and is entered annually by over 1,600 talented young physicists.

The competitions are designed to test understanding and problem solving skills and are open to young physicists in school years 11-13 (GCSE to A2 or equivalent).

Participation in the competition allows students to have fun whilst problem solving, test their knowledge, use physics to solve real problems, experience higher levels of study and gain a prestigious award to add to their CV.

Joanna Quigley, a second year student from Nuneaton won a Gold Award, this puts her in the top one hundred Physics students in the country. Adrian Maye a student from Tamworth achieved a Silver Award and is in the top 250 students in the country.

Adrian said “It’s really great that the college offers us these extra opportunities, even if it does translate into several hours of exams. The Olympiad in particular really makes you think, and takes you out of your comfort zone because you have to apply the Physics you know to an abstract problem. It’s definitely helped with my studies though; you end up seeing things in a new way, after the Olympiad’s trial by fire.”

Thomas Sharrock, Andrew Chapman, Alex Cullen, and Daniel Gautrey all received Commendations. John Raynor, Stephen Pearce, Liam Barkes, Harry Orchard and Matthew Parker all received Bronze Awards.

Alex Hawthorn, Teacher of Physics at King Edward V1 College said “The Olympiad is a wonderful way of getting recognition for our more talented physicists. Their dedication and hard work has really paid off and the college is extremely proud of these students.”

Over 400 students from schools across Gloucestershire and further afield attended the 8th annual Religious Studies Conference on Wednesday 25th January hosted at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

Pupils from schools including Bournside, Chosen Hill and Sir Thomas Rich’s heard from two eminent speakers. Michael Wilcockson, author of several key Ethics books, Head of Divinity at Eton College and a Chief Examiner for OCR, led a session entitled ‘How far can you go? Sexual Ethics’.

During the second session, students heard from Baroness Warnock, a respected author and life peer who has chaired committees on Special education, human fertility treatment and animal experimentation. Baroness Warnock spoke passionately on the topic of Euthanasia, of which she is a committed advocate, having previously written numerous articles on the topic. Her talk prompted lively debate amongst the students during the afternoon session which took the form of a panel debate between the students and visiting speakers.

Dr Victoria Sherwood, Religious Studies teacher at Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Conference Organiser said, “The Conference gave students from many different schools across Gloucestershire the fantastic opportunity to hear from two eminent speakers and to engage in discussion and debate with them. It was an extremely stimulating day and the combination of the thought-provoking speeches and the more practical examiners’ sessions will be of great help to students in their forthcoming exams.