Chemistry Students Best Ever Olympiad Results

Talented chemists from Winstanley College recently took part in The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) UK Olympiad.

The UK Chemistry Olympiad is the leading chemistry competition for schools and colleges across the British Isles. The challenging competition is designed to encourage budding chemists to develop critical problem-solving skills, learn to think more creatively, and test their knowledge in new, real-world situations.

The topics covered in the 2023 paper included rocket fuels, electronegativity, amino acid complexes, vaping and cheese. Almost 12 000 students took part nationally with Winstanley entering 12 in total.

All 12 Winstanley students achieved recognition; 7 were awarded a silver certificate and 5 were awarded a gold certificate. Those achieving gold were in top 9.2% of entrants- the college’s best ever performance in the Olympiad, which is entered annually.

Chemistry teacher, Mhairi Birchall, who entered and coached the students for the competition, commented: ‘The Chemistry Olympiad is a very high profile competition and for all the entrants to receive silver or gold shows us what talented chemists we have. The students should be very proud to have achieved our best ever Olympiad results and it will give them confidence for their future Chemistry studies. Well done!’