CURRICULUM// CODING
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:
OUTSTANDING RESULT IN
NATIONAL PERSE CODING
CHALLENGE
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.
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THE POCKLINGTONIAN
“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.”