Oundle pupils strike Gold in Biology Challenge

Published on isbi School News dated Friday 9th of May 2014

Fourth Form pupils and top Third Form Biology sets from Oundle School achieved exceptional results in a national Biology Challenge organised for pupils in Years 9 and 10 in England. 18 Oundle pupils gained prestigious Gold awards given to the top 5% from the 30,000 pupils who enter.

The competition was designed to promote an interest in Biology and take pupils beyond the normal school curriculum. It is a nation-wide, online, competition that all schools can enter.

Fourth Form pupil, Thomas Dudley commented, 'We had to take two separate papers on the computer, each lasting thirty minutes with the second paper being harder than the first. Although the questions covered topics we had done at School, they went further than the curriculum and were targeted at pupils who were keen on learning more about Biology outside of school, either from magazines, news-coverage, documentaries, books and the internet. The more interested you were in science and Biology the easier the test became. There was no 'revision list' of formulas to learn or processes to memorize, it was not a test that you can just memorize from revision.'

163 of the Oundle pupil participants achieved a certificate, which ranged from Commended to the prestigious Gold award.

Thomas added, 'As a year group we should be proud of our achievements and we have certainly set the bar very high for next year's Fourth Form! I think the Biology Challenge has been a great opportunity for Oundelians to 'flex their intellectual muscles' - it is also an opportunity for Oundelians to stretch their horizons and to either spark a new interest in biology or to fuel a growing flame.'

Biology teacher, Sudip Burman-Roy, commented, 'Entering the Society of Biology's Olympiad and Challenge competitions this year has proven to be a great success and both of these events will now become a fixture in the Oundle Biology Calendar.'