Year 12 pupil Madhi Elango is to represent the country after beating off competition from thousands of older students to win a place on the British team for this year’s International Physics Olympiad. Madhi will join four team-mates for the competition in Copenhagen in July.
“This is a truly impressive achievement and we are delighted at Madhi’s success,” said the Headmaster, Neil Enright. “The competition is primarily aimed at Year 13 students, so he has done exceptionally well to progress to this stage. We wish him every success in Denmark and trust that he will also enjoy the cultural aspects of the trip.”
Madhi and fellow Year 12 student Aniruddh Raghu reached the second stage of the competition after they both achieved top 50 places from more than 2,000 entrants. After the second round, Aniruddh was placed in the top 30 whilst Madhi was placed in the top 16 and was selected for the final training camp in Lincoln. After sitting further exacting test papers, Madhi was finally placed in the top five.
More than 80 countries will be represented at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) , which was established as an international competition for secondary-level pupils in 1967. Each country is invited to send a team of up to five school students who are given an opportunity to test themselves at the very highest level against their peers. The aim of the Olympiad is also to provide a cultural and social opportunity for the participants.
One day of the IPhO will be devoted to a theoretical test paper and another to an experimental paper, each of which takes five hours. Students will receive the examination papers in their national language. Despite the extremely taxing tests, the organisers say a festival atmosphere prevails; they organise a programme of excursions and social activities to give students the chance to learn about the host culture and make friends from other countries.
![""]("/images/1.jpg")
Madhi and Aniruddh have both received a book prize for their performance in the Year 12 paper of the British Physics Olympiad – a separate achievement from their above success, since that competition was aimed at Year 13 students. In addition, Bhavik Mehta, Andrew Hui, Robert Swan, Tianlin Zhang and Kishan Makwana also received book tokens for their achievements in the Year 11 paper for GCSE-level Physics.