There is only one word on the tongues of all the Computer Scientists across The Abbey this week – Bebras!

No, they have not all given up Computer Science and taken up Lithuanian – “bebras” is Lithuanian for Beaver.

They are all preparing for the Bebras challenge – the annual international algorithmic thinking competition, run in the UK by Raspberry Pi Foundation. From Lower I right up to Upper VI students have taken part in these computational thinking challenges across the school each year.

As Robert Bradley, Head of Computer Science at the Senior School, explained in last year’s Gateway article;

“An algorithm is just a set of step by step instructions to solve a given problem. Algorithmic thinking, therefore, is being able to think backwards from a solution to understand what steps are required from the starting point to solve the problem.”

The challenge itself takes place between 10 and 21 November, with students at the Senior School taking part during one of their Computer Science lessons during the week.

The school has a good history of gaining Gold Certificates in the competition – these are awarded for gaining a score in the top 10% of the 400,000 entrants expected in the UK.

Dr Sarah Tullis, has previously said about the competition: “It is wonderful that we have so many excellent computational thinkers at The Abbey and that the Computer Science Department is nurturing and developing these skills which will carry students so far.”

We wish our students the best of luck over the next two weeks and we will celebrate our Gold certificate winners in their classes when the results are announced.