A huge congratulations go Layan J, (Year 11), who showcased his problem-solving and computer-programming skills to land 6^th place in the country in the Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC).

The prestigious OUCC is an invitation event for those who have achieved a top 10% score in the UK Beras Challenge. It is aimed at helping talented computational thinkers develop their skills by giving them tasks to solve with programmed solutions.

As one of 38,427 participants in his age range, Layan battled his way through to round one, with 3,155 others. After flying through a combination of blocks-based and text-coding challenges, Layan made it down to the final 20 young computing talents, in which he was the only student from the whole of Leicestershire.

After an extremely tough competition, where Layan went head-to-head against some of the country’s strongest problem-solving minds, he came 6^th overall in the country, which is an incredible achievement.

Mrs Karen Alexander, Teacher of Computer Science at Loughborough Grammar School said: “”We are immensely proud of Layan’s incredible success in the Oxford University Computing Challenge. This achievement is a testament not only to Layan’s exceptional problem-solving skills and dedication but also to his ability to apply computational thinking in innovative ways. As one of his teachers, it has been a privilege to witness his growth and to see him embrace the challenges of the competition with such enthusiasm and determination.”

Layan said of his achievement: “I really enjoyed the competition and it was a lot of fun to do, I am very happy with my achievement and grateful to Mrs Alexander for giving me this opportunity.”