Sixth Form Students Excel in Chemistry Olympiad
The Chemistry Department has recently celebrated its best ever results for the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad and the highest score by an individual student. This annual competition is a written exam designed to stretch the most able Sixth Form chemists, offering them an insight into Chemistry that goes beyond A Level.
Judging from the grade boundaries, the paper was challenging this year and included calculations of the structure of atoms in Bronze, calculating energy from fuel-producing bacteria and testing students on the organic synthesis of a chemical agent used in MRI scans amongst other topics. A large number of Lower Sixth students attended the preparation sessions in which students were trained in how to answer the questions and harvest as many marks as possible.
Upper Sixth student, Evie Smith, scored an incredible 41 marks which is the highest score achieved in recent times at RGS and places her in the top 8.3% of candidates worldwide. To her credit, she was able to draw out complex macrocyclic molecules and scored highly in the synthesis sections of the paper. This bodes well for her studies in Chemistry at University next year and we wish her well. Finally, another big well done to all the Sixth Form chemists for flying the flag for Chemistry once again by embracing the challenge!
Students were awarded 17 Bronze medals, 8 Silver medals and 1 Gold medal. Medals were awarded to the following:
Upper Sixth
Evie Smith – Gold
Ethan Stubbs – Silver
Luke Jones – SIlver
Annetta Makar – Silver
Charlie Timmington – Bronze
Tom McMillan – Bronze
Jacob Bunyan – Bronze
Miles Brigden – Bronze
Dylan Cowling – Bronze
Callum Sharp – Bronze
Matthew Dale – Bronze
Alfie Mossop – Bronze
Lower Sixth
Sam Taylor – Silver
Henry Welsby – Silver
Theo Mason – Silver
Elizabeth Crookhall – Silver
Michael Liu – Silver
Tom Bowditch – Bronze
Jaimie Lee – Bronze
Toby Alexander – Bronze
Grace Williams – Bronze
James Evans – Bronze
Charlotte Abbots – Bronze
Vikaash Vijithan – Bronze
Matthew Fallows – Bronze
Charlie Barlow – Bronze
Dr William Stephen, Teacher of Chemistry
