Brilliant Biology

The biologists visit Braunton Burrows in the sunshine.

by MRS METCALF

BRAUNTON BURROWS FIELD TRIP This was one of the first off-site trips of the academic year. We were unable to run our full residential but our Upper Sixth pupils made up for it by working hard, collecting data on sand dune ecology at Braunton Burrows to complete their A Level required practical - all with a smile on their faces!

BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD AND CHALLENGE We are delighted that we have still been able to run these competitions for our Upper Sixth and Middle Fifth pupils this year, who have performed well.

All the Upper Sixth achieved at least a ‘Highly Commended’ award, with two pupils scooping gold, putting them in the top 5% of over 8,000 participants. The Middle Fifth pupils took part voluntarily, competing with nearly 27,000 others. Thirty of the 43 Middle Fifth achieved a medal, with many others being commended for their performance.

ANYA WARD INTERCONNECTED

The biology photo competition has now become a summer term tradition to link to the RSB national competition. This year’s theme was ‘Interconnected’ – the way in which organisms connect to each other or to their environment. We had a bumper crop of photos from the Third Form to Lower Fifth and staff entries have grown in number this year!

Images ranged from pollinators to pets, farm animals to artistic vegetation and from macro lens close-ups to landscapes. Members of both the biology and art departments carried out the judging and we were all particularly impressed with the quality and skill of the photography.

Third Form to Lower Fifth

1st Anya Ward, Lower Fifth 2nd Sara Sari, Lower Fifth 3rd (equal) Charlie Davey and Harry G Gray, Third Form

Middle Fifth to Sixth Form 1st Amelia Johnson, Middle Fifth 2nd Hannah Gooddy, Lower Sixth