Last week, 281 pupils from across all year groups at Francis Holland, Regent’s Park took part in the annual UK Bebras challenge.

The UK Bebras challenge is an international competition, delivered by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in partnership with Oxford University, aimed at getting students excited about computing.  

The girls were tasked with 18 online puzzles to solve computational thinking challenges over 45 minutes. The challenge emphasises participation but also rewards achievement and includes a certificate with their scores. Top achievers will obtain a certificate of Distinction, and for each age category, a chance to achieve a certificate for ‘Best In School’. We run this competition every year since for many of our pupils, it is a chance to discover their talent for problem solving in a fun way!

An incredible 33 students received a Gold Award certificate (a staggering 31% increase from our results from last year), ranking them amongst the top 10% nationally. This year, we also received our first ever perfect score since running the competition last year. These students progress in the competition as they prepare for The Coding Challenge (formally known as OUCC) which will run between 24 March – 4 April 2025.

Fun fact – Did you know that ‘bebras’ is Lithuanian for beaver? The competition was named by the founders of the International Bebras Challenge after the hard-working, intelligent and lively beaver.