A Senior Maths Challenge Success!

On Thursday 14th November, a team of four of Greenhead College’s budding mathematicians competed in the regional final of the Senior Team Maths Challenge at the University of Leeds. The challenge involved three rounds of extremely difficult maths questions but team GC, consisting of A1 students Jack Sacks, Fin Cook, James Gibson and Ahmed Mir, shone through and placed 2nd out of 20 teams! This is an outstanding achievement and a personal best for the College as the students dropped just 18 out of a possible 186 marks. Congratulations to Jack, Fin, James and Ahmed on this outstanding achievement!

In other Maths related news.. On Tuesday 7th November over 200 students took part in the first round UKMT Senior Maths Challenge, a UK wide challenge in which the students sit a 90 minute exam consisting of challenging multiple choice maths questions. The results are in and 27 students received a gold certificate, 63 a silver and 65 a bronze! 4 students also qualified for the British Mathematical Olympiad round 1, which consists of a 3.5 hour written paper, and 23 students have qualified for the Senior Kangaroo, a 60 minute problem solving exam!

Congratulations to all that took part, and good luck to those who have qualified for the next rounds!

Shaun’s Silver Medal Success in Japan

Shaun IOI 20181.JPGFormer Greenhead College Student, Shaun Marshall has been awarded a silver medal at the International OIympiad of Informatics, which took place in Japan. Shaun completed his studies at Greenhead College in summer 2018, gaining A*A*A*A* grades and secured his place at Oxford University to study a joint degree in both Maths and Computer Science.

Shaun flew through the initial rounds which took place in College and competed at the National Finals at Trinity College Cambridge where he finished in the top 3, qualifying him to compete at the International Finals.

Each year the International Olympiad of Informatics is hosted by a different country and this year the competition took place over 7 days in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan near Tokyo. 87 countries entered teams of up to 4, selected from their respective National Championships. The contest is made up of 2 sessions on separate days, each of which entails solving 3 questions within a 5 hour time period.

Out of the 335 participants, Shaun achieved a silver medal coming 1st in the UK team and 71st in the World, placing him in the top 25%. An outstanding achievement!

Martin Smith, Head of Mathematics, commented:

Shaun is an outstanding student – his ability to solve challenging problems is phenomenal. I am sure he will carry on to future success during his degree at Oxford.

Shaun is pictured below with the full UK team, who also performed remarkably.

UK Team IOI 2018.jpg

4th in the World for Greenhead Engineers

team robust.jpg

Four students from Greenhead College, formerly from Moor End Academy, have achieved, a very impressive, fourth place in the World Finals of the Land Rover 4×4 in Schools Technology Challenge, held in Abu Dhabi.

The challenge involves teams of three to six students aged 13-19 working to design and build a radio controlled four-wheel-drive (4×4) vehicle, to set specifications. The vehicle must successfully navigate and overcome obstacles on an off-road test track, and emulate the capabilities of a full size 4×4 vehicle – a challenging yet fantastic opportunity for ambitious young engineers.

Team Robust, made up of students; Zain Anjam, Alyan Saleem, Amaar Farooq and Rizwaan Ali, all aged 16-17, sailed through to the World Finals after finishing in 1st place at the regional and national championships last year. The finals saw them competing against 23 other teams across 16 countries, including three other teams from the UK – of which they finished in the highest place.

Upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, the team got off to an unfortunate start when their luggage, containing their vehicle, arrived 16 hours late. This put the team at a slight disadvantage in the competition, as it meant, unlike the other finalists, they were unable to make any final tweaks and amendments to the vehicle.

Despite this, Team Robust kept their spirits high and performed to an outstanding level, earning themselves a fantastic fourth place in the competition.

Alyan Saleem, member of Team Robust and the team’s Resource Manager said:

“The Land Rover 4×4 In Schools Technology Challenge has given me an insight into the Engineering World and has helped immensely with my career plans. The competition has helped me build key life skills such as working under pressure and working as a team. The World Finals was an amazing experience and it has been a massive success for everyone in the team and we are very pleased with our result!”

 

Flautist Imogen Davey is crowned Kirklees Young Musician of the Year

Flautist Imogen Davey hit all the right notes to be crowned Kirklees Young Musician of the Year.

The 17-year-old Greenhead College student impressed the audience and judges at this year’s Mrs Sunderland Music Festival at Huddersfield Town Hall.

She beat off strong competition from four other young musicians to win the coveted title.

And it was second time lucky for Imogen, from Marsden, who took part in the contest last year.

She performed Deep Blue by Ian Clarke and Trevor Green’s Picaroon Polacca.

Ray Brown, one of the festival’s organisers, commented: “She played very well and there was quite a decent audience for her.

“It was an extremely good standard and the adjudicator said that it was extremely difficult to choose somebody.”

Imogen is a member of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra and the National Wind Ensemble of Great Britain.

She has previously won prizes for her performances at St John’s Smith Square in London and further a field in the Netherlands.

Other musicians taking part in the contest were violinist Abigail Askew from the Royal Welsh College of Music in Cardiff, Sarah Bush, a violinist and University of Huddersfield music student.

They were joined by pianist Francisco Marques, originally from Portugal and also a University of Huddersfield Student, and Matthew Rhodes, who plays the saxophone and is from Scholes in Cleckheaton.

As winner Imogen receives £1,000 and a trophy which will presented to her following her performance tonight at the gala concert.

The event will bring this year’s festival to a close and also feature some of the top talent seen by audiences this year as well as a competition between the winners of today’s chor classes.