Junior School students achieve brilliant results in UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge
In the second week of November, all of the girls in Years 2, 4 and 6 took part in the ‘Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge 2021’ during their Computer Science lessons, the result for which have just been released. This is an online competition run by the University of Oxford, which involves solving complex problems against the clock, using computational thinking skills such as algorithm design, pattern recognition, logic and abstraction. Our girls competed in their respective age categories against schools from all over the UK (over 300,000 students in total) and the competition also ran in over 50 other countries across the world.
This is the second year that St. Mary’s Junior School has taken part in the competition, and we are absolutely delighted with the results that our girls have achieved compared to other schools in Cambridgeshire and the country as a whole:
Year 2
|
Description
|
Min Score Achieved
|
Average Score Achieved
|
|
St. Mary's Junior School
|
43
|
62.0
|
|
Cambridgeshire
|
20
|
55.3
|
|
National
|
20
|
58.6
|
Year 4
|
Description
|
Min Score Achieved
|
Average Score Achieved
|
|
St. Mary's Junior School
|
75
|
105.3
|
|
Cambridgeshire
|
20
|
90.8
|
|
National
|
20
|
87.2
|
Year 6
|
Description
|
Min Score Achieved
|
Average Score Achieved
|
|
St. Mary's Junior School
|
39
|
102.8
|
|
Cambridgeshire
|
2
|
91.9
|
|
National
|
2
|
83.5
|
In addition to results at a whole school level, the girls have also received certificates for their individual achievements compared to national performance data, with the ‘Merit’ and ‘Distinction’ categories for exceptional performances being achieved by at least three-quarters of the girls in the older two age groups and two-thirds of the girls in Year 2, as follows:
|
Age Group
|
Merit
|
Distinction
|
|
Year 2
|
33.3%
|
33.3%
|
|
Year 4
|
27.3%
|
59.1%
|
|
Year 6
|
20.0%
|
56.0%
|
Many congratulations to Phoebe Z-W (86.6%), Anthea E. (92.8%) and Ariane M. (89.0%) for achieving the highest scores in their Age Groups and being awarded ‘Best In School’ certificates.
We are also delighted to announce that four of our Year 6 girls achieved scores in the top 10% nationally and have been invited to participate in the online Oxford University Computing Challenge 2022 in February next year. Four girls now in Year 7 have also been invited to participate as a result of their exceptional performances in last year’s OUCC competition.
The girls worked extremely hard during the challenge and demonstrated not just their computational thinking skills, but also enthusiasm, determination and perseverance. They should all be extremely proud of what they have achieved.
Find out more about Computer Science at St Mary's Junior School here.