Record-breaking Olympiad success

Students from Collyer’s have enjoyed a record year at the annual British Biology Olympiad 2015.
Successful biology students and their teachers with Principal Sally Bromley (7th from right). Picture by student reporter Selina Polat SUS-150520-152206001Successful biology students and their teachers with Principal Sally Bromley (7th from right). Picture by student reporter Selina Polat SUS-150520-152206001
Successful biology students and their teachers with Principal Sally Bromley (7th from right). Picture by student reporter Selina Polat SUS-150520-152206001

Beating off stiff competition from thousands of contestants across the UK, the Collyer’s students won 1 gold, 3 silver and 7 bronze medals. In addition, 14 Collyer’s students received Society of Biology commendations, with 5 of those highly commended!

Dr Mike Price, Subject Leader for Biology at Collyer’s was very pleased with a record year: “Our students responded brilliantly and I’m thrilled and incredibly proud that they can now rightly be recognised amongst some of the best in the country.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The computer based competition was incredibly demanding and really tested in-depth biological knowledge at the highest level.

“This is all fantastically useful for UCAS applications to the most prestigious universities and courses! Well done to them all!”

A gold medal was awarded to Adam Tod; Maddie Lord, Laura Somers and Lydia Wilson achieved silver. Bronze medals were awarded to: Aashka Bahal, Finn Charlton and Alex Chau; Bethan Davies, Sam Fong, Alex Glossop and Melvin Mathew Jose.

Adam Tod, who previously attended Warden Park School in Cuckfield, is hoping to study Natural Sciences at the University of Southampton next year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He was delighted: “It’s a credit to the exceptional biology team, as well as the students, that Collyer’s is able to compete with many private schools around the country.”

Dr Mike Price said: “The gold medal will be awarded to Adam Tod at the Royal Society, at a ceremony later this summer. He’s one of Biology’s mega stars at Collyer’s, so it really is incredibly exciting for everyone!”

First year student Maddie Lord, who impressively achieved a silver medal, said: “It was really hard as they threw some questions at us that were unexpected, but I found it interesting.

“I am grateful to have been given the chance to participate and happy to have won a medal.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bronze medallist Alex Chau said: “The test was really hard because some of the questions were not on our syllabus, but I am pleased with my results”.

Hannah Bowdery, Laura Bryant, George Hayward, Julius Granville-Smith and Andrew Stuckey were highly commended. George Arbuthnot, Scarlett Eddie, Imogen Gearing, James Habineza; Emily Heather, Connor Hicks, Ryan Jones; Holly Smith and Annabel Webber all received commendations.

Scarlet Eddie said: “It was very hard and challenging but I am pleased with my commendation certificate”.

Dr Mike Price is already excited about next year: “We’ve raised the bar high, but looking at the next generation coming through, along with our current enthusiastic first years, I’m confident that we can achieve even greater success!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Collyer’s Principal, Sally Bromley, who presented the students with their awards, said: “We have a very strong faculty for Mathematics and Science, with a richly deserved reputation for excellence. Congratulations to Dr Mike Price and these outstanding students for representing the faculty and Collyer’s so superbly!

“To be able to compete at this level on the national stage is fantastic. Horsham and Collyer’s should be extremely proud of them all!”

Report by student reporters Hannah Cruz and Selina Polat.

Related topics: