Hartlepool Sixth Form College students achieved awards comprising of bronze, silver and gold in The British Physics Olympiad. Recently rated Outstanding by Ofsted, this achievement is yet another for Hartlepool Sixth Form College where students continually achieve exceptional grades with 91% overall pass rate for A-Levels and 97% of students progressing to employment, university or further study.
Chemistry & Further Maths student Benjamin Stevenson celebrates further achievement as he placed in the top gold category, and fellow student Rongchang Li achieving silver.
Less than 9% of A level students sit the Y13 Olympiad, it is incredibly challenging and is the hardest Physics challenge possible at this level.
Lisa Hall, Physics Course Tutor at Hartlepool Sixth Form College said: “This is an amazing outcome and acknowledgement for all our students and STEM staff involved. What Ben has achieved is Outstanding and he is a credit to Hartlepool Sixth Form College.
“I am in awe of the determination, enthusiasm and resilience of these outstanding students. I am incredibly proud of their achievement. These are all impressive achievements, but Rongchang’s Silver and Ben’s top gold are phenomenal.”
The British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) is a charitable trust overseen by a committee of trustees.
On a day-to-day basis the BPhO is run by five committee members and run by a large team of volunteer physics teachers and academics from across the country.
Ben said: “The Olympiad is the most fun thing I have ever done and also the most mentally tiring thing.”
The BPhO first round is a paper about physics problem solving and is taken by those who have a keen interest in raising their problem-solving skills.
The students opted to take part in the British Physics Olympiad round 1 in November 2024. The standard of the questions, while based on A level content, are beyond A level standard in terms of challenge.
The students prepared for the Olympiad as part of Hartlepool Sixth Form College’s ‘Advanced Problem Solving’ group, practicing their verbal reasoning and coaching skills alongside some difficult problem solving.
All Physics students at Hartlepool Sixth Form also participate in the Senior Physics Challenge online which is run by the British Physics Olympiad for year 12 students.
Benjamin also participated in the second round of this Olympiad in February and has also received an offer from Oxford University to study Physics in September 2025.
Only students achieving a top gold will be invited through to round two, which represents the top 0.4% of all Physics students in the UK. Success in round two means an invitation to join the UK team for the International Olympiad.
Students are encouraged to participate in more than just their main programme of study to enhance their skills, and Hartlepool Sixth Form offers many enrichment activities for this including placements, visits and volunteering,
Jane Reed, Executive Head of Hartlepool Sixth Form College said: “We are all immensely proud of our students’ outstanding achievements in the British Physics Olympiad.
“These results reflect the exceptional talent of our students, the dedication and expertise of our Physics teacher, and the strong culture of academic excellence we foster as a Sixth Form College. Congratulations to all who took part – your hard work and passion for physics is truly inspiring.”
For more information on courses at Hartlepool Sixth Form College, please click the link: https://hartlepoolsixth.ac.uk/courses/course-search/
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(*Top college nationally for BTECs, Pearson 2019)
100% pass rate in 20 A-Level subjects including Computer Science, Economics, History and Maths.
*Summer 2019
99.1% overall A-Level pass rate
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