Students complete Bebras Coding Challenge

News - May 15

Before Easter, 569 Colyton Grammar School students completed the Bebras Coding Challenge across five categories, from Novice to Trailblazers, and we would like to congratulate all pupils who took part.  

The Novice and Explorers challenges use block-based programming, which by no means makes them easy. The Explorers challenge proved particularly difficult. The Navigators, Pathfinders and Trailblazers challenges all involved using a textual programming language.  

Students from Year 7 and the majority of Year 8 took the Novices challenge and 116 students across these year groups achieved 100%, including 38 Year 7 students. 50 Year 8 students chose to take on the very demanding Explorers Challenge and, whilst no one achieved 100%, Alex E did achieve the best score in Devon.  

Year 9, 10 and 11 Computer Science students had the choice between Navigators and Pathfinders challenges, with the following students achieving 100% in Navigators:  

Year 9: Parth A, Zion G, Hattie S, Javier C, Daniel J, Martyna P, Jibran F, Daniel J and Grace X 

Year 10: Anna L, William K  

Year 10 student Toby S achieved 100% in the Pathfinders challenge.  

Year 12 and 13 Computer Science students took the Trailblazers challenge and James Y in Year 12 achieved 100% in this. Year 11 student Benji O also took on the Trailblazers challenge, achieving 58 out of 60 makes, which is a fantastic accomplishment as the challenge involved applying aspects of the A Level curriculum. In addition, 247 of the students who took part achieved a Gold certificate for being in the top 25% in the country in the category they entered and will receive a certificate.  

This is an amazing account of success in such a prestigious national competition. Colyton Grammar School is very proud of its work in the digital world, and this is reflected in our close association with the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT and National Cyber Security Centre (GCHQ) and being a Cyberfirst Gold Award School. A big thank you to Mr Cronk and Mrs Benattar for all their amazing leadership and expertise.