Latymerians show potential at British Physics Olympiad 2023

2 February 2023

Congratulations to our Sixth Form students who performed outstandingly well in this year’s British Physics Olympiad (BPhO).

Andrea, Balthazar, Elena and Nikhil achieved the Bronze award; there were a further 8 Silver awards for Alexander, Charlie, Hugh, Matilda, Nathan, Oscar, Pluto and Saskia, a Gold for Edward and a Top Gold for Daniel.

Achieving a “Top Gold” award is exceptional and means that Daniel has now been selected for the UK Team. He will be taking part in the next round in the British Physics Olympiad competition, and also the BAAO Olympiad.

“I would like to congratulate all who took part, this was NOT an easy paper and our students should all be proud of what they have achieved,” said James Hunt of Latymer’s Physics Department. “The event organisers even acknowledged how challenging the paper was, telling us that “University professors have taken this and “got nowhere”’.

There were a record number of students and schools taking part this year – 2,830 students from 440 schools in the UK and a further 2,500 students in China and elsewhere overseas. This year’s paper challenged a range of student knowledge, preparation and ability, stretching their understanding of the topics. Every question requires a different perspective to get the measure of it. This fluency in recognising topics and linking ideas is, in part, what develops the physicist’s confidence and mastery – the very skill that universities are looking for.