Congratulations to all of the boys who sat this year’s UK Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO) advanced paper. The questions were fiendishly hard, ranging from exercises on vowel shifts in Mongolian to mathematical problems in Gumatj.
A special mention must go to Oscar Hudson who won gold for the second year running, cementing his position as one of the school’s most gifted linguists. Oscar Hill was successful too, receiving a silver award and demonstrating a particularly impressive understanding of Gumatj’s quinary numeral system. Hot on his heels, however, were Remove Form’s Nikolai Sorokin and Alfie Willcocks, both of whom also earned silver awards for their efforts.
Jo Fordham and Calum Bourne rounded the accolades off and received two well-deserved bronze awards.
Mr Michael Dawson, Teacher of German, who organises the UKLO at Bedford School, commented, “I am extremely proud of all of the boys in this year’s cohort. The UKLO is well-known for the difficulty of its questions and its stringent grade boundaries – to win gold, students must fall within the top 5% of all entries, the next 10% silver and the next 20% bronze. This year’s advanced paper saw 1,497 pupils compete against one another from across the world. Our boys should feel very pleased with their efforts. I look forward to next year and hope for even more accolades!”