The Perse Coding Team Challenge
The Perse School runs The Perse Coding Team Challenge (persecoding.net); this is an annual competition, available and free to all schools (for years 7-11) to stretch and challenge students in their coding and computer science.
Almost 200 schools are currently registered with approximately 3000 students taking part. Participating schools come from all sectors: teachers invigilate the online challenge at their own school with a certificate system alongside prize money for the top three teams each year.
The names and school of the winning team will be inscribed on the physical Braben Cup, which will remain at The Perse School.
Aims
Promote engagement with Coding and Computer Science more widely.
The competition is one of the founding competitions for United Kingdom Computational Thinking Challenges (UKCT Challenges), an umbrella organisation committed to promoting UK computational thinking progression through our progression pathway of successive competitions.
Background
The competition is supported by Dr David Braben OBE FREng who provides the trophy cup and annual prize money.
David is a British game developer, game designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments plc, co-creator of the Elite series, space trading computer games, first published in 1984. He is also a co-founder of and works as a trustee for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Resources
Staff at The Perse School devise the questions and administer the competition.
Impact
Some schools have already received positive comments from Ofsted inspectors as a result of their participation and the competition is actively promoted through UK computer science educational channels.
In excess of 700 students each year are entering the competition from maintained-sector schools, gaining extension opportunities to develop their coding skills and compete with peers from across the country and the globe.
In 2023, the Perse Coding Competition was the Gold Winner in the CIPR PRide Awards STEM Category for Engaging Young People in Computer Science. The CIPR feedback stated:
The campaign showed a detailed understanding of the audience it was aimed at, and the best way to communicate with this group. The judges were impressed with the efforts to bring the brand in-line with the schools, and the understanding of the 'logical' audience's requirements. Impressive effort to raise interest in STEM subjects.
Pupil Involvement
Open to pupils in years 7-11 from all UK secondary schools across all sectors.
Frequency
Annual