The number of Bedford School boys taking part in inter-school programming challenges grows year on year, with over 100 boys across the Prep and Upper school recently taking part in coding competitions.
First up, the Oxford University Coding Challenge – the second round of the Bebras Computing Challenge. Every boy in our Prep School took part in as part of their Computer Science lessons. 28 boys from Years 7 to 12 reached this more difficult stage, with distinctions achieved by Fourth Formers Pop Immaraporn and Fifth Former Fraser Morgan.
The Perse Coding Challenge followed, with 114 boys from Year 8 to Fifth Form taking part in teams of two.
We are hugely proud of the results, with over 50% of boys achieving a merit or distinction and Fifth Formers Fraser Morgan and David Shirley achieved 100%. Twelve teams will go through to the next round, in which Prep and Upper School boys will be combined into groups of three to work together.
Fifth Formers Fraser Morgan and David Shirley who achieved 100%.
David Shirley told us, “There is a lot of collaboration between year groups. In round two, Fraser and I will be working with a talented Fourth Form boy.”
Fraser Morgan was thrilled to achieve 100% having worked so hard since last year, he said, “It was really exhilarating – it felt amazing to work so efficiently and fly through the tasks; we ended up finishing with several minutes to spare! Dividing the tasks between us was definitely the key to success.”
He went on to say, “It’s really awesome to be able to work together in programming competitions and challenges, so I’m really looking forward to the upcoming House Coding Competition.”
During class, boys cover interesting topics like ethical issues, networks, and cyber security. Python coding is taught as part of that – learning a coding language is a vital skill for the future, especially with the increasing prevalence of AI in the workplace.
David Shirley also explained, “The computer science community here at Bedford is very large, with a large variety of co-curricular clubs being run that are well attended. We do things such as drone racing, competitive coding and there is even a Virtual Reality Development Club.”