Congratulations to our A1 student, Nathan Grange who was awarded with 3rd place at the National Oxford University Computing Competition. Nathan, who previously attended Kettlethorpe High School, is currently studying 5 A Levels in Computer Science, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics at Greenhead College.

Nathan took part in the first round of the competition alongside his other classmates, who were encouraged to enter by our Computer science department. In round 1 (The Bebras Challenge) only the top 10% nationally qualified for round 2 and amongst a few others, Nathan made it through to the next round. Congratulations to all our other students involved in the challenge.

The 2nd round consisted of 12 Programming tasks to be completed within 1 hour, there was seemingly lots to do in a short space of time. The top 20 students to complete these tasks then went on to compete in the 3rd round, the national finals.

Nathan flew through to the national finals which again, consisted of 12 tasks of programming to be completed within an hour. Nathan explained that

“The hardest part was the timing, as you only had 1 hour to complete 12 tasks. The tasks definitely got harder with each round”

Nathan came an impressive 3rd place out of the 20 remaining contestants, Nathan said that he is really pleased to have come 3rd place, as are we! Nathan would like to study either Computer Science or Maths at university. Once again, a huge congratulations to Nathan, we are so proud of you!

We are so excited to announce that our very own GC student, Zara Tyas, who previously attended Honley High school, is celebrating an outstanding achievement as she has been selected for Team Great Britain in High Jump after jumping an incredible 1m 80cm.

Her interest in sport started from a young age when Zara was a gymnast and it wasn’t until the age of 15 that she realised athletics was her passion. Zara is an extremely committed athlete who regularly travels to Stockport and Loughborough to train in High Jump and Heptathlon.

“I had to come top of the rankings in the under 20’s in order to qualify for Team GB”, Zara explained.

With her previous record jump being 1m 71cm, it has taken Zara a lot of hard work and dedication to jump the extra 9cm, which qualified her for the team.

With Zara’s week mainly consisting of training 5-6 days a week for 4-6 hours, it has been a challenge to balance this around her college work. However, Zara, who studies A Levels in PE, Chemistry and Maths has received great support from Greenhead College to encourage her ambitions in sport. Travelling the country for competitions and keeping up with college work has proven to be quite time consuming and the PE department in particular, have supported Zara through her athletics journey.

Simon Lett, Principal at Greenhead College said

“We are absolutely thrilled to see that Zara has qualified for Team GB and have no doubt that she will go on to achieve amazing success in the future”.

Sue Young, Head of the PE department then added

“What a fantastic achievement and thoroughly deserved after all your hard work.  We are so very proud of you”.

Now Zara has jumped 1m 80cm, she is now aiming to compete at the Europeans and the Worlds. To qualify for the Worlds, she will need to jump 1m 84cm.

Congratulations to Zara, this is an incredible accomplishment. We wish her the very best of luck and success for the future.