We are delighted to celebrate the fantastic success of our students who recently participated in the prestigious Bebras UK Computing Challenge, organised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This annual competition is designed to test participants' computational thinking and problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way. The Bebras Challenge is an international initiative that aims to introduce students to Informatics (Computer Science) concepts. It involves answering a set of challenging, multiple-choice questions over a supervised 40-minute period.

The challenge is divided into age groups, and the questions are carefully designed to be accessible without requiring prior programming knowledge. Instead, they focus on computational thinking, which includes:

• Algorithmic thinking: Designing steps to solve a problem.
• Decomposition: Breaking a large problem into smaller, manageable parts.
• Pattern recognition: Identifying trends and similarities in data.
• Abstraction: Focusing on relevant information while ignoring unnecessary details.

Our students demonstrated incredible aptitude and dedication, leading to a fantastic set of results across the board!

• Elite Success: A special congratulations goes to Issac, who achieved an Elite Certificate, placing him in the top few percent of all students nationally.
• Senior Awards: An impressive 9 students received Senior Awards for their high scores.
• Intermediate & Junior Awards: Additionally, 8 other students gained Intermediate and Junior Awards, showcasing strong performance across the younger year groups.

These achievements are a testament to the students’ hard work and the strength of the Computer Science curriculum at Stretford Grammar.

"I am incredibly proud of all the students who took part," said Mrs Zareen, Curriculum Leader for Computer Science. "The Bebras Challenge is a brilliant way for them to apply computational thinking skills in a competitive and enjoyable environment. Issac's Elite achievement is outstanding, and the large number of students receiving awards demonstrates a real passion and talent for problem-solving within our school community. We hope this success inspires even more students to explore the world of Computer Science."

Well done to all the participants! We look forward to seeing our students continue to excel in future computing challenges.