Recently, 160 of our student mathematicians participated in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge, a 90 minute stimulating but fun challenge consisting of 25 multiple choice maths questions.

The challenge was tough, but they all performed outstandingly with 55 students achieving a bronze certificate, 45 achieving silver and 20 receiving a gold. The students with the gold certificates also qualified for further rounds; the Senior Kangaroo and the British Mathematics Olympiad 1.

We are still awaiting on the results for these rounds!

4 A1 students, James Dierchx, Luke Dodd Adkins, Anjali Narendran and George Sleight, also participated in the regional final of the UKMT Team Challenge, held at the University of Leeds, competing against 22 other teams from the region. They finished in a fantastic 9th place, which is even more impressive as they were competing against a majority of A2 students.

To be entering 160 students into a challenge like this really goes to show the scale of how many talented mathematicians we have here at Greenhead College. They all performed outstandingly well and it was a great way of developing key mathematical and problem solving skills.

Well done to all the students who participated.

Over the last term, A2 Biology students at Greenhead College have had the opportunity to attend knowledge enhancement lectures and workshops ran by various academics from the Universities of Huddersfield, Leeds and Manchester.

Each week a different academic came into College to deliver a workshop on a topic that is beyond the A Level specification, including how to make proteins, the importance of exercise on cardiovascular health, ethics of animal experimentation and more.

The project has been a great opportunity for the students to learn more about different topics, study their specific interests in more depth and understand what it would be like to study a biology related degree at University. They also learnt about various different job roles available within the field of biology, particularly jobs that the students hadn’t even heard of.

It’s been a successful project that has certainly benefitted the students involved.

We would like to say a big thank you to all of the guest speakers that came in to deliver the workshops:

• Dr. Donald Ward (Manchester) – Biology Efficiency: From Molecular Multitasking to Drug Repurposing
• Dr. David Lewis (Leeds) – Ethics and Practice of animal experimentation
• Ruth Norman (Leeds) – Exploring the small structures in the heart to answer the BIG questions in heart failure
• Shamus Burns (Huddersfield) – Epigenetics
• Dr. Brian Jackson (Leeds) – How to make proteins and influence people
• Gemma Lyall (Leeds) – The importance of exercise in maintaining cardiovascular health during ageing
• Ashleigh Elliot (Leeds) – Can we improve UK wheat yields using a friendly fungus?
• Ruth Jeavons (Leeds) – Slandering seabirds – why gannets are not all that greedy
• Dr. Natalia Riobo-Del Galdo (Leeds) – Hedgehog: from fly genetics to human cancer
• Jarek Bryk (Huddersfield) – Genomics/bioinformatics in medical research

Shaun Marshall, who studied at Greenhead College from 2016 to 2018, has been shortlisted for a British Education Award in recognition of his outstanding academic results and extra-curricular success in the A Level Category.

Shaun has been shortlisted for the A Level England Zone 1 Category, alongside three other students from Oldham, Stockton-on-Tees and Stoke-on-Trent. Shaun is the only student shortlisted from Yorkshire and the Humber in this category. The winner of the award will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony and dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester on 31st January 2019.

Shaun was nominated following an incredibly successful two years studying at the College, achieving four A* grades in his A Levels in Computer Science, Physics, Maths and Further Maths. However, it was Shaun’s extracurricular success that really made him stand out as a candidate.

Shaun competed at an International level in the Olympiad of Informatics, which took place in Japan. Competing against 335 participants worldwide, Shaun finished in 71st place and 1st from the UK which placed him in the top 25% and received a silver medal.

He also competed in various other Olympiads where he placed in the top 25 nationally in the Mathematics Olympiad, and in the top 50 nationally in the Physics Olympiad.

It doesn’t end there – Shaun also completed various other endeavours including volunteering, tutoring, playing Squash, Tennis and Badminton and also both the Saxophone and Clarinet to grade 8 standard, all alongside studying for his A Levels.

Principal of Greenhead College, Simon Lett, commented:

“We are thrilled that Shaun has been nominated for this prestigious award. This is the second year in a row that a Greenhead College student has been nominated for a British Education Award and we are hopeful that Shaun will follow in the footsteps of Grace Goswami who won Student of the Year at last year’s ceremony. A truly deserving finalist.”

We wish Shaun the very best of luck!