Photo L-R: Pocklington School pupils Henry Hudson, Zac Stewart and Harry Chacksfield who came fourth in the final of the Perse Coding Team Challenge 2019
Pupils from Pocklington School performed exceptionally well in the recent Perse Coding Team Challenge 2019, with three teams reaching the finals and one team making the top ten standings.
This national competition for secondary schools pits teams of pupils in First to Fifth Year against each other in a timed automated challenge across two rounds each. Pupils submit short code solutions to a range of challenges which increase in difficulty across the two rounds and during a timed contest: 40 minutes in round 1, working in pairs and 60 minutes in round 2, working in a team of three.
The round 1 teams were:
Zac Stewart and Harry Chacksfield
Ewan Robson and George Winter
Henry Hudson and Kai Swanborough
Albert Johnson and Lucas Walton
Louis Toulmin and Ethan Rhodes
After the first round, the top three Pocklington teams all qualified for round 2 and were reassembled into two teams of three.
Third year pupils Henry Hudson and Zac Stewart, and Fourth Year pupil, Harry Chacksfield, were thrilled to finish in fourth place out of 254 teams and received a Distinction certificate.
Fourth Year pupils Ewan Robson and George Winter and Third Year Pupil, Kai Swanborough, finished very respectably in the top 50 percent of the finalist teams and received a Merit certificate.
After many hours of practice in their own time, the boys have reached an extremely high standard of coding in Python, aided by coaching from Cubby Wilson, a former pupil at Pocklington School, who has stretched them with probing work.
This is the second year Pocklington School have entered the competition. Mrs Wilson, Teacher of Computing said: “In our first year of entry we placed 30th, so to have a team finish fourth this year is a great achievement for our pupils. The coding skills of all the boys were tested to the limit by writing code for twelve questions in one hour. Henry, Zac and Harry scored 100/120 which we knew would not be a winning score but we were in contention for a good place.”
She continued: “I am very proud of all our pupils who entered this challenge. It really is quite tough, working against the clock and I am sure the experience will have helped further develop their coding skills and given them ambition to do even better next year.”
Mrs Wilson concluded: “The standings of the top ten teams put us in good company and certainly raises the profile of Computing at Pocklington School. It is evident with the talent displayed that the future looks bright.”