Designed to challenge and inspire, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s UK Chemistry Olympiad is the leading chemistry competition for pupils in secondary education across the British Isles.

This enriching experience is a unique opportunity for pupils to push themselves further and excel in the field of chemistry.

Just taking part in the Olympiad is a huge achievement so it was with a mixture of excitement, curiosity and trepidation that Alex and Lily, both in Year 13 at Bethany, sat the paper at the end of January.

Once they had submitted their work they described the tasks in a variety of ways: “fun”, “not what I expected”, “worthwhile”, and “very hard” (they used the latter description a lot!), but they needn’t have worried…

The final results were announced this week and both can be extremely proud indeed of their endeavours.

Alex was awarded with a Bronze Certificate which is an exceptional achievement and as for Lily, she managed to achieve the highest possible award of a Gold Certificate. This marks Lily out as one of the top 8.3% young chemists in the country and was thoroughly deserved due to her exceptional ability.

Massive congratulations go to both pupils for their magnificent efforts!