News & Headteacher Blogs

The Downs School had two teams reach the recent final of the Perse Coding Team Challenge (PCTC), a prestigious nationwide competition that uncovers computing talent in secondary schools. We are delighted that our Year 11 team of Antek and Tomas finished in second place overall after an incredibly close final.

 

The competition attracts huge numbers of students from state, independent and international schools.  This was the second year The Downs School has entered, and under the two round format of the challenge, we submitted two teams, one from Year 10 and another from Year 11.

 

Over 2,500 students took part in the first round, with the two Downs School teams both achieving Distinction and qualifying for Round 2. These were Toren and Max from Year 10 and Antek and Tomas from Year 11. Around 600 students, making up 254 teams progressed  to Round 2 – the final -  of the challenge, competing for the Braben Cup, with Tomas and Antek finishing in second place overall, an incredible achievement.

 

Dr Howard, Computer Science and ICT teacher said: “We are delighted with the students’ attitude towards the challenge, and take distinct pleasure in their achievements. We are also immensely proud of our Year 11 team, Antek and Tomas, for coming second in the final, achieving 107 out of 120 possible marks. As Paul Baker, the organiser for the competition, comments on The Perse website, Round 2 was incredibly ‘tightly fought at the very top’.”

 

Tomas and Antek said: “The competition was a challenging experience … that gave us a new way to apply our computer science skills beyond the standard curriculum.”

 

Both teams will shortly receive ‘participation and distinction’ certificates, and a monetary prize of £100 each is also to be awarded to Tomas and Antek. Well done to them all, and we wish Tomas and Antek good luck in their forthcoming GCSE exams.