Another Amazing Year of GCSE Results at The Piggott School

We had a busy few days at the beginning of the month with our Summer Activity Days.  

On Sunday 13^th  May 2018, 24 Year 10 Piggott students embarked upon their journey to France, and after a long day of travelling, we finally arrived at the car park where we were greeted by our exchanges and their families who kindly welcomed us to their homes.

In light of the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday evening our Year 6 into 7 welcome event has been brought forward. I am sure many of you will want to watch the football and I hope that this will allow you to do so whilst also visiting the school.

Earlier this term, four of our students were selected to compete in the UKMT Maths Team Challenge against other schools in the region. The Maths Team Challenge is always an exciting and highly competitive event, and this was no exception, with students solving a variety of intricate mathematical problems and puzzles. Our four students, Mia Palmer (Year 9), Alex Flann (Year 9), Jess Peck (Year 8) and Matthew Steele (Year 8), demonstrated fantastic team work.

Two of our Year 7 students, Thomas and Amelia, represented the Piggott School in the Year 7 Mathematics Quiz competition held at Shiplake College on 22^nd of March.

The team achieved 4^th position, competing against 13 other teams from independent or grammar schools.

They showed brilliant team work and amazing clarity of thought under pressure.

These were Thomas’ thoughts about the Quiz evening:

“I liked how the quiz was organised because of the interesting way the questions were presented. The quiz involved me thinking ‘outside the box’. Also the competitive side made it enjoyable.

My favourite round was the relay as it involved quick thinking and teamwork.

The refreshments being particularly good too!”

 

Well done Amelia and Thomas.

 

Mrs Kashyap, Mathematics Department

 

Our Cyber Security National winners, The Computifuls, will be on the BBC World Service this afternoon.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswnl4

 

A team of four Year 8 girls have won a national competition, organised by the government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to encourage girls to consider a career in cyber security. Over 1,200 teams took part in the online round of the 2018 CyberFirst Girls Competition at the end of January, and the top 10 teams were invited to the Grand Final in Manchester on 19 March.

Initially 18 girls made up 5 teams for the online round, solving taxing technical puzzles and challenges set by the NCSC.  The top Piggott team The Computifuls (Jess Peck, Megan Pickup, Zara Pristov-King and Callena Wylie) qualified for the final, having shown great dedication and a very mature understanding of when to work individually and when to collaborate.  Not satisfied with being in the top 1% of participants, they set about researching topics which would give them the best chance in the final, and so were very well prepared.

 

 

The all-day final involved teams taking the part of computer network security professionals at a company which was the victim of a ransomware attack.  Each team had to use all their skills to identify the source and nature of the attack, and to recover from it.  They also had to make a presentation to the company directors to share their findings and to make recommendations for avoiding similar attacks in future.

 

As winners of the final, the Piggott girls won individual prizes as well as £1,000 for the school to spend on computer equipment.

Mr Rimmer who was the coordinator of Piggott's CyberFirst entries, said,

“We are all absolutely thrilled for the girls.  They have been so determined to do their best, and having had 15 years’ professional experience as a software developer, I can assure anyone that the level of skill and understanding which they have demonstrated is extraordinary.

“The result is also a great demonstration of the strength of our Computer Science department under the leadership of Mrs Bhattacharya.

“Any of the girls around the UK who scored well in the online round can be confident of their ability to have a good career in the computer industry, and I hope that the competition has encouraged them to consider that option.”

NCSC have written an article about the competition and the Piggott girls' success at the link below.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/uks-most-cyber-savvy-girls-crowned-after-codebreaking-competition-finale

 

Photos provided by the NCSC

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/