British International School, Phuket (BISP) successfully hosted the FOBISIA Mathematics Code Breaking competition for the second year running. The virtual event was a huge success again with 78 schools taking part from across Asia, Europe and the Americas. Students had to work through a variety of codes, and those who cracked all codes at each level had the opportunity to have their names on the leaderboard.  There were over 17,000 leaderboard entries from 14,000 competitors – a fantastic achievement!

There is a close link between mathematics and code breaking which made this a natural fit as a mathematics competition. The skills that make good mathematicians, problem-solving, logical thought and perseverance are the same skills that make great code breakers. 

Students from both Primary and Secondary took part across the week. BISP Primary students in Year 5 and Year 6 were some of the first students in the world to try out the codes and gave some invaluable feedback to support running the event.  The first students to complete from each class were Elizaveta, Dylan, Tara, Jade,  and Na-Phatsara.

In Secondary, all of our Year 7s, Year 8s and Year 9s took part together – and it was great to see such energy and enthusiasm from our students as they worked through the codes.  Our top code breakers in Year 7 were: Karin, Natkrita, Nikolai and Anna-Irina. In Year 8 it was Lehu, Aiden, Kiran, Clayton, Valeriya and Elina and in Year 9,  Pratik, Caleb, Ethan and Ilya were our code champions.  A special mention to Clayton and Valeriya who managed to complete 4 different code levels.

The British International School Phuket has done it again –  successfully hosting the first FOBISIA student event of the year, FOBISIA Online Maths Code Breaking. After last year’s amazing turnout, this year was even bigger with nearly 75 percent of FOBISIA member schools taking part. Along with 8 non-member schools, the hosts saw a staggering 14,000 children participate.  Congratulations to BISP for this exciting event, we hope the students and teachers enjoyed the codebreaking!

John Gwyn Jones MBE, CEO FOBISIA

Altogether BISP had over 370 students managing to get on the Level 1 leaderboard – which was great to see and placed our school in the Top 10 of schools globally for this challenge. Who knows, maybe some of these students will go on to work in encryption and decryption as a future career path? Well done to all of the students who took part in what has become one of the largest school maths challenges in the world.

BISP Mathematics produces best ever results

BISP’s top set Mathematics students took their IGCSE Cambridge Mathematics examinations one year early and the class achieved some outstanding results.

Twelve students took the exams and received 8 A*s and 4 As. The overall class average was an incredible 93% and the top two students, Oak and Scooter, scored 99.5% and 98.5% respectively.

Mr Griffin, Head of Mathematics at British International School, Phuket commented, “This is the first time our accelerated class has taken the examination in May, a whole year early, and produced our best ever results. Well done to the class, their hard work paid off!”

The class is now continuing to study even more demanding mathematics by following the Cambridge Additional Mathematics syllabus. This will allow them to study mathematics at IB level to help prepare them for Year 12.

The Mathematics Department at British International School, Phuket is celebrating its best ever results at this year’s South East Asian Mathematics Competition (SEAMC), in which our students were awarded 5 medals and two students have been invited to compete in the Asian finals in Australia later this year. The SEAMC competition in Singapore brought together 180 of the top Year 9 and Year 10 mathematicians from across South East Asia.

Students at SEAMC represented 20 countries, displaying strong competition from schools in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines and Taiwan. Year 10’s Hyunwoong received both Silver and Gold medals after excelling over the 3-day competition – in particular reaching the Semi-finals of the Duel round, after seeing off 176 other competitors. He was also ranked in the top 15 for the Mathematician Round – a really impressive achievement given that it includes the most difficult mathematical content.

Cat from Year 9 won two Silver Medals and also managed to reach the Semi finals of the Duel round. Bank was the third member of the team to pick up a medal, being awarded a Silver medal for outstanding collaboration with students from other schools. The collaboration rounds required students to solve real world engineering challenges such as designing a boat capable of carrying the largest cargo and making posters to solve other mathematical problems.

Mr Griffin, Head of Mathematics commented, “The BISP team comprising Cat, Tania, Att, Hyunwoong, Bank and Por Pan were all a real credit to the school – congratulations to all of them for this success.”

Excellent Senior UKMT Results

The Mathematics department are celebrating some of their best ever UK Maths Challenge (UKMT) results, with 18 students from the school being awarded certificates. The UKMT Senior Challenge is designed to challenge even the very best Y12 and Y13 mathematicians from schools around the world, so the school’s results this year were really impressive. In order to gain a certificate students must excel whilst tackling 25 mathematical problems. These are designed to test a student’s problem solving skills and how they can apply their mathematical ability to real life situations.

In total we had 5 Bronze awards, 9 Silver awards and 4 Golds. This year the Gold certificates went to Aom, Elias, Luciano and Nayoung. Aom also gained the Top in School certificate, whilst Nayoung was awarded the Top in Year 12. Congratulations to all the students who took part this year and we look forward to some equally impressive results when the Junior and Intermediate UKMT competitions are held later in the year.

TT Rockstars Competition Underway

The annual TT Rockstars competition is now underway – to enter the leaderboard you need to play at least 10 times on the Studio.  Current leader is William Fergusson from Y8.  Baseline speed means the average number of seconds per correct answer.  Last year we had students with a baseline speed under 1 second – see if you can beat that this year!

With early entry exams sat in November, rather than the traditional following May/June period, we are delighted with the results of the International Mathematics and Biology students.

Maths Teacher Mr Chambers commented that, “the International Maths IGCSE is a very demanding course – to do so well in an early entry is very impressive. In the class there were 92% A to A* (100% A* to B), including 8 As and 4 A*s. Congratulations to all students for their hard work – an excellent start to your IGCSE exams”.

Biology Teacher Ms Young and Mr Richardson, Head of Science, added, “of the 22 students who sat their early entry Biology exam, 18 gained A to A* (82%) and 100% A* to B. There were 9 A*s and 9 As. Of the three sciences, Biology has by far the most content to learn and to do this six months early and gain such excellent results is really pleasing. Well done to all concerned. These results should fill you with confidence looking ahead to the final exams in June”.

PIMC: Phuket Island Maths Challenge

On Friday 3rd March, 12 of our top KS3 mathematicians participated in the 3rd annual Phuket Island Mathematics Contest, this year hosted by UWC. Students were challenged throughout the course of the day with a wide variety of activities, from a fast-paced and physical Energiser round to an outdoor Maths Trail, as well as Mathematical Catchphrase. Students were joined by students from UWC, Headstart and Kajonkiet and worked excellently in their mixed teams. Particular congratulations go to Round Winners, Caterina, Baimon and Prae, all from Year 7 and Bai from Year 9. All four girls achieved individual medals for their excellence, in addition to their certificates of participation.