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2020-08-31-accounts

Charity number: 1146064

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Accounts

for the year ended 31st August 2020

Wenn Townsend

Chartered Accountants

Oxford

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Contents

Page
Trustees’ Annual Report 1-10
Independent Auditor’s Report 11
Receipts and Payments Accounts 12
Statement of Assets and Liabilities 13

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31st August 2020

Legal and Administration Information

Registered charity name The British Physics Olympiad Trust (also known as BPhO) Charity registration number 1146064 Registered office The British Physics Olympiad Trust Department of Physics University of Oxford Denys Wilkinson Building Oxford OX1 3RH Trustees Dr Anson Cheung Mr Iain Holmes Mr Robin Hughes (Chair) Mrs Clare Thomson Dr Sian Tedaldi (Administrator) Website www.BPhO.org.uk Independent examiner Wenn Townsend Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor 30 St Giles Oxford OX1 3LE

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued)

for the year ended 31st August 2020

Structure, Governance and Management

The governing document is a Trust Deed dated 11 January 2012. Trustees are appointed or reappointed at a meeting of the Trustees.

The BPhO is run through the Outreach Office of the Physics Department of the University of Oxford. One of the Trustees (Dr Sian Tedaldi) is the Physics Outreach Officer, who has a shared role. This provides both administrative and academic support, an awareness and understanding of the requirements for developing students' physics skills and knowledge, whilst also providing facilities for enabling many volunteers to be able to offer their services to the BPhO.

A Child Protection Policy and a Data Protection Policy are in place. DBS checks are carried out on the Trustees, but also on the volunteers, who are mostly teachers (some retired), who are engaged in running problem solving classes, lecturing, and participating in the training camps.

All work is voluntary, apart from that of the Administrator, who is an employee of Oxford University and who is allowed to devote a percentage of time to the administrative running of the BPhO.

Day to day running of the BPhO is by a Management Committee of five members who coordinate the relevant activities during the course of the academic year, funnelling many of the administrative activities through the Oxford Administration Office.

Charitable Objects and Main Activities Undertaken

The objects of the Charity are the advancement of education and engagement of students in physics including:

The key activities are the setting of competition papers and running Training Camps. For this an active Management Committee liaises with thirty to forty volunteers, mainly teachers or physics research students, who participate in a wide range of quite specific large and small roles to expedite the aims of the BPhO. There are five distinct areas in which we focus for running and development.

1. Paper setting:

2. BPhO Training

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued)

for the year ended 31st August 2020

3. Widening engagement

4. Sponsorship

5. Sustainability and expansion

The team of volunteer supporters who participate in these is a rolling group who can afford to give of their time, depending upon personal, family and career commitments. This is a real limitation in the BPhO activities, and so the team of core paper setters is small whilst the surrounding group of contributors, checkers, and supporters in one way or another is relatively large.

Paper setters or Team Leaders are:

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

Competition
paper		 Schools
(2016-
17)		 Schools
(2017-
18)		 Individuals
(2017-18)		 Schools
(2018-19)
Individuals
(2018-19)		 Schools
2019-20
Students
2019-20
Junior
Physics
Challenge
Y10		 Year 10
(Online)		 N/A 140 6436 205 10950 100 5169
Intermediate
Physics
Challenge
Y11		 Year 11 305 375 8656 424 8867 349 2534
6000*
Senior
Physics
Challenge
Y12		 Year 12 427 465 6791 518 6362 556 3054
6000*
Physics
Challenge
(competition
and a
resource)		 Year 13 158 360 3780 254 3000 354 2698
registered
Astro
Challenge
(competition
and a
resource)		 Year 13 30 65 27 161 72 127 315
BAAO
Astrophysics
Olympiad		 Year 13 33 59 83 133 277 71 100
BPhO Round
1		 Year 13 or
below
348		 319 1745 349 1965 396 2081
BPhO Round
2		 Year 13 or
below
40		 80 102 80 100 80 100
Junior Astro
Challenge		 Y10/11 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 28 855
Experimental
project		 Year
10/11 &
Year
12/13		 32 46 135 54 220 56 247

With such a wide range of papers being produced (ten competitions this year, with the introduction of the Junior Astro Challenge), there is a lot of pressure to ensure that each competition goes through many checks. Question papers and mark schemes should reflect the ability and experience of both of students and teachers for each level; being interesting questions, stretching, informative, eliciting a deeper understanding amongst all who try them. They are not mere questions to get by; they are to encourage perseverance, build determination and resilience and possibly, to encourage students to discuss them and develop their skills in expressing their grasp of the concepts through explain their ideas to their peers.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

The aim of the Trust is to offer students questions based on physics problem solving. This is to extend students' skills beyond examined courses and to provide them with the opportunities to apply their physics knowledge and to grasp the power of the subject, which is to analyse the nature of the physical world. This year there have been over thirty thousand students from several hundred schools of all types across the UK (and a number of International schools following a UK education system), who have participated in the competitions. These students are encouraged to develop problem solving skills through a set of competitions, or by teachers making use of the online resources on the BPhO website. The level of skill required to solve physics problems is high, but it is reached by determination and endeavour rather than being solely an ingrained natural talent. The UK competes in a global market and science is the key to future economic development. The examination system is a route to competence, but it is important that something additional is offered to students who want to excel in this subject. Mathematical skills are vital and the BPhO does include this in the competition papers. The BPhO is there to provide opportunities for students to appreciate the challenges of the subject and to realise that it is a mathematical subject for which mathematical solutions to problems provide a perspective on understanding. It is to support students in achieving their aspirations for university entrance.

When planning our activities for each year, the Trustees are cognisant of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and, in this regard, the BPhO ensures that access to resources and training is open to all students, whatever their school, background and location. The BPhO resources are freely available via the website www.BPhO.org.uk to teachers and students from all schools. The widest reach is the goal, with boys and girls being able to benefit from access to materials focused at their level of ability and above, and not being confined to going through their teachers. Attendance at some of the annual meetings for physics teachers enables the charity to disseminate information, to encourage teachers to participate in the activities, and allows for them to develop their students’ skills to the highest level. This is particularly significant in allowing those students with aspirations to further their knowledge and to engage realistically in the challenges of applying to the top university courses in physics and engineering. Teacher Workshops are run each year, and schools with less engagement with the Olympiad are encouraged to attend where possible.

Responses to Covid-19

Competitions have been moved online, although the competition dates have managed to slip through when students have been in school. There has been little disruption to the activities, in part due to our main competition season just about finishing before lockdown. We did not obtain the result from so many teachers for the Intermediate Physics Challenge, although students participated. The final competition, the JPC was online in Amy anyhow. That rans successfully. Meeting students has been curtailed and the training for the teams has been online.

Plans are being made for moving the other competitions online, which does change their nature in some cases. The online competitions have been run with students at home and teachers monitoring them.

It has not been possible to run our usual physical events. We will take these up again when we can.

The BPhO finances are in good shape given the savings made in several areas. Several of the competitions bring in a modest income and these have continued to run. The large expenditure activities of the Annual awards, training camps and sending teams overseas have not taken place.

Outreach activities this year have been cut.

Training of the teams entered for the IPhO, EuPhO and IOAA equivalent has all taken place online.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

Background

Problem solving is an empowering activity and is one way of developing students' confidence in taking up life's challenges. Teachers can be unaware of the level that can be reached by some of the very best students. For both teachers and their students, engaging with others at workshops and problem-solving events encourages participation and gaining confidence in seeing that physics is hard for everyone, but that the rewards can be great. The BPhO endeavours to allow those students and teachers to benefit from the wealth of accumulated experience that is available from the group of volunteer teachers. It is also part of the remit to ensure good practice in teaching extension material to challenge students from all backgrounds. To be able to share materials, information, ideas, and expertise from those who have developed that expertise. This encourages the exchange of information to the benefit of teachers and students.

The BPhO is very much a network and maintaining contact with everyone is an ongoing process throughout the year. About 40 teachers (a few retired) from a variety of schools, contribute their time and experience to the benefit of the BPhO. The rewards are in seen in the developing expertise of strong students who gain confidence in a subject that they enjoy, and which can be seen as economically important for the country. We also want to do well in international competitions in which our (two) teams of five students have been selected to represent the UK. The students are worked hard, and they certainly apply themselves with great determination in the limited training time available. The variety of schools from which these students come each year testifies to a broad programme of attracting able, enthusiastic, and extremely hard-working students with an avid interest in the subject. These volunteer teachers provide all of the work that goes into teaching and setting of exam papers for the BPhO; we maintain contacts by email with all those who do small tasks such as checking aspects of a competition paper in order to encourage and offer opportunities for participation in the BPhO. Postgraduate student markers are paid at demonstrator rates for the marking of about 2,000 papers for Round 1 in November of each year. The BPhO is able to fund one or two schoolteachers to attend the International Physics Olympiad in July of each year.

For the BPhO Round 1 paper (a chargeable entry due to the cost of marking), non-fee-paying schools are awarded two free entries for their students each year. The introduction of the Astronomy & Astrophysics competition, with the training camps and other support, is a significant expenditure and could not be sustained indefinitely. But plans are in hand to obtain sponsorship from companies in this field, and we have an income through the sale of the Round 1 paper and several of the others overseas.

The number of contributors to the BPhO is extensive, and the charity is very much a network linking teachers and students. We would like to record one of the teachers who passed away earlier in the year.

Main achievements during the year

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

The IPhO was postponed and we entered the European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO) instead. The UK team all won medals, with one Silver and four Bronzes. The team were Ben Burgess, Nick Maslov, Oliver Sier, Rubaiyat Khondaker, Max Wong, with James Wirth and George Whittle as reserves.

The competition activities for this year have been:

September 2019 - Physics Challenge (Year 13) : an estimate from the orders is 3-4 thousand students from over 400 schools using this paper or part of it. It is not a competition paper, but a resource to encourage students to develop their physics problem solving and to want to go on to the next level. Many schools use this as a precompetition paper; some try it out in class whilst many more schools than this use it as a source of questions for their teaching. This paper encourages participation within a class environment, providing questions often for extension, which precipitates further discussion on a range of topics. It covers topics within the syllabus for physics, but with questions that would not be on a typical exam paper that students would meet. We are also trying to engage teachers with problem solving for their students.

Sept/Oct 2019 BAAO Astro Challenge (Year 13) : similar in idea to the Physics Challenge: this paper is written for students with little acquaintance with the subject. The necessary physics is often presented within the questions. This is to show students that the can participate despite the impression they gain from the subject title that they know nothing of the subject. However, good physicists know enough to do well.

Nov 2019 – British Physics Olympiad (Round 1) : This is the first of the senior level physics papers, which is the start of team selection for the UK team for the IPhO in July 2020 (though switched to the EuPhO). This year 2081 students participated (including 10% AS students), of which 400 were girls (20%), in this 2hr 40 min paper in school. 396 schools (349 in 2018) entered. Independent schools may enter larger numbers of students in a few cases and so the corresponding candidate entries are 46% (48% 2017), 54% (52% 2017) for non-fee paying and fee-paying schools, similar to the previous year. It is the schools reached which is the number of significance however. Medals were awarded to the top 900 students, with the top 100 being invited to participate in Round 2. Two free entries (normally £18 per entry) were offered to all state schools. This does encourage a greater number of schools to participate. Up to 190 non-fee-paying schools ordered approximately 300 free papers. This is a significant contribution to increasing the range of schools participating.

The paper was also taken by 1000 students in China at about the same time, organised in conjunction with the Chinese arm of a British charity ASDAN. This enabled comparison of the results at this level, whilst also indicating to students the international aspect of physics, to see how they did compared to a cohort from another part of the world. Some analysis and a report is written for each competition to endeavour to maintain a consistency and suitable level of challenge for students, and also to observe trends developing in what topics students can cope with. The distributions shown indicate a similar set of results for the small number of students at the top end, with

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

a different entry cohort for students making up the bulk of the middle to lower mark range. This depends on the school approach to entry, which is distinctly different in China for several reasons, some of them being logistical and cost related (they put in a younger age range).

This paper provides a distinctly different challenge to students from a conventional A2 paper; it is more mathematical, the questions are less scaffolded, and the overall level of difficulty is much higher. It is undoubtedly at the extension level of physics for students. The intake of girls, whilst only amounting to 20%, nevertheless is encouraging in that they wish to participate at the highest level. There is often a girl on the team, which corresponds to a 20% female participation. The length of the paper has been reduced, and possibly less information is gathered about student skills and knowledge, but it is a small price to pay if participation can be increased.

Dec 2019 - BPhO Experimental Project : Schools send in their best two entries and these are marked by the BPhO. This has not expanded much, although over 200 students at GCSE and AS are engaged, from about 50 schools, with the best examples being of a very high standard and reflecting some remarkably detailed investigations. Marking these entries has proved to be difficult as they require a certain level of experience to understand the school level student presentations, many of which are extremely good.

January 2019 - BPhO Round 2 : 100 students were invited to take this three-hour paper after their success in Round 1 in November. This paper tests a range of skills as after being written for thirty years by a single writer, is now re-finding its style; it is much more a test of synoptic skills in physics, and not on well taught mathematical techniques. The scores ranged between 20% up to 80%. From this paper, 14 students were invited to the “Oxford Easter Training Camp” (held online).

January 2019 – BAAO Competition Paper : 71 students were either invited or, in a small number of cases, asked to take this paper. This included a small number of girls (11%), and participation by several non-fee-paying schools, again as last year, about one third of the school entry. This was quite encouraging in the participation. It is expected to develop slowly. Twelve students were invited to the online Training Camp over Easter. Astro Training Camps have been developed, at Oxford, Cambridge, and Marlborough College, for both theory and for Observational skills. All students who have taken part have become engaged in astronomy subsequently. It has been a remarkably attractive aspect, although small numbers are involved at this stage.

March 2019 - GCSE Challenge (Intermediate Physics Challenge): 2534 marks were entered within a week of the one hour competition paper being sat, which was also a date close to the end of term this year, from the 349 schools ordering papers) (in 2018, 3437 submitted marks). This is from reported results, whilst the numbers of participants entered when papers are ordered online is over 6000. Since only about half the schools enter their results (there is no great incentive for them to do so), it would seem that the number of participants reported is about 50% of those who take part. Papers are marked within the schools. The grade boundaries are set when nearly three thousand marks have been entered and this provides a set of Gold (62%), Silver and Bronze I, Bronze II and Commendation awards. Comments reported from teachers are that the paper is tough. It is a fine line between tough and too difficult.

March 2019 - AS Challenge (Senior Physics Challenge) : almost 6000 of this one-hour competition paper were ordered by schools, and 2698 results were reported back one week after sitting the paper (orders were taken from 556 schools). Details of awards are as for the GCSE Challenge above, with only about 50% of the entries being reported.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

These two competitions for younger students are to show them that there are real challenges in physics, and to encourage them to participate at the next level. To some extent, this works; names recur in the list of successful candidates in subsequent years. In order to set the grade boundaries, over 3000 results for AS papers had been entered one week after the papers had been sat. This is about half of the number of students who take this paper.

Squad Selection : A squad of 25 students, decided on the results of Rounds 1 & 2, and the BAAO Paper were invited to an online Training Camp for five days over Easter. They are split into two groups, for the Physics route to the IPhO and the Astro route to the IOAA. This is intensive and has been tuned most recently to focus very much on solving problems in several topics – on the Physics side, Thermodynamics, Rotational Dynamics, Electromagnetism, Relativity, Waves, but no Practical Skills this year. The parallel training camp for the Astronomy & Astrophysics Olympiad was run with 14students.

We had online training rather than meeting at Training Camps.

These activities satisfy our stated objectives to:

In doing so, the opportunity is taken to engage with schools and encourage both students and teachers to participate. The BPhO Trust is committed to its programme of school competitions, student training, new developments in teacher support and broadening the publicity of the BPhO. The aim is to build up numbers, but also to provide resources to develop skill in problem solving for students who have less access to such opportunities.

The end of year saw our team of five physics students at the EuPhO organised in Estonia. A five hour theoretical exam, followed by a five hour online data taking challenge, is tough even for the strongest candidates and confidence levels need to be high, not to think that one might do well, but rather to believe that there are parts that can be done at all. Many students fall by the wayside when they lose heart. Our students keep going and that in itself is an important learning point in life.

Awards at Royal Society April 2019: The Presentation Day at the Royal Society recognises the students who have talent, but who have also worked very hard to achieve the top results. It has had to be postponed and we hope at some stage to meet the students and some of their teachers who have been so successful through their hard work.

Sponsors: The BPhO has several continuing sponsors although they have had to be put on hold for the lockdown period. We cannot deal with book prizes, and financial support is on hold temporarily. Nevertheless, sponsorship funding is a small part of our income and so whilst it is unfortunate, we particularly welcome their interest in the BPhO activities, encouraging us to develop the important links between school physics and the demands of the usual IPhO, held in July. The perseverance, determination, the skill base, and the team effort that need to be developed is considerable, but without the financial support, both in kind and in backing the principle, little would be accomplished.

Policy on reserves

Cash surplus to current needs, which is all unrestricted, is held in an interest-earning deposit account. These funds are held in order to meet any unexpected expenditure as it arises and to provide a resource to draw on for future activities. At present, amongst other things, it is enabling the provision of free entries to the Round 1 competition paper, supporting CPD Workshops for teachers, and enabling teachers to attend the International Physics Olympiad as visiting delegates.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2020

The BPhO has between two and three years running expenditure in savings at the current rate of expenditure. Developments in our outreach and training programme in the near future may entail significant extra costs but, given that there is an income stream from one set of competition papers (which subsidises all of the other electronically available ones) it is not the intention to run down the reserves. Rather the opportunity will be taken to develop the BPhO. We have a significant income stream through our links with China and the use of our papers. This is exciting, but has produced a considerable workload which we have not experienced before.

Future Plans

We continue to look for wider engagement with pupils and teachers. A continued emphasis on widening the number of students and schools, especially from state funded schools, will open up opportunities to a very wide range of outstanding students who will revel in the chance to perform in a competitive and aspirational subject. The information from the online entry database will be accessible from the Oxford Administration Office next year, rather than making request through the IT department. This may allow for a more informed approach to our target audience.

We would like to have more teachers experiencing the training camp events and being able to attend the International Physics Olympiad. It is an eye-opening opportunity for teachers who do not realise how far many good students can go if the reins are released.

We want to develop the Astro Competitions, particularly the Junior Astro Challenge in November. It is online, and is a way of raising interest rather than setting very challenging problems to students.

The development of the data base systems for collecting data on participation of schools and students, will also reduce the workload at the Oxford office in handling papers and entries.

Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above.

Signed on behalf of the trustees:

Robin Hughes

Mr Robin Hughes, Chairman of the Trustees

Date: 10[th] June 2021

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Members of The British Physics Olympiad Trust

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31st August 2019 which are set out on pages 11 to 12.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity’s trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records;

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

A K Bahl BA BFP FCA Wenn Townsend 30 St Giles’ Oxford OX1 3LE

…………………………. 2021

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The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 31st August 2020

Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
2020 2019
£ £ £ £
Receipts
Receipts from educational activities 72,501 - 72,501 84,510
Donations - - - 11,500
Bank interest received 106 - 106 542
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total receipts 72,607 - 72,607 96,552
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Payments
Administration staff costs 20,435 - 20,435 2,438
Casual staff and teaching fees 10,000 - 10,000 20,687
Consumables 3,087 - 3,087 -
Equipment 551 - 551 -
Bank charges 77 - 77 289
Accommodation 1,156 - 1,156 16,747
Travel and subsistence 1,624 - 1,624 17,645
Marketing 26,218 - 26,218 1,998
Printing, post, and stationery 2,130 - 2,130 2,294
Conference expenses - - - 15,225
Subscriptions 45 - 45 417
Accountancy fees 2,695 - 2,695 1,500
Insurance 442 - 442 -
Registration fees - - - 20,008
Website costs 140 - 140 2,580
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total payments 68,600 - 68,000 101,828
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Net of receipts/(payments) 4,007 - 4,007 (5,276)
───── ───── ───── ─────
Transfers between funds - - - -
Cash funds as at 31st August 2019 78,575 - 78,575 83,851
───── ───── ───── ─────
Cash funds as at 31st August 2020 82,582 - 82,582 78,575
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

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The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31st August 2020

Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
2020 2019
£ £ £ £
Cash at bank
Barclays Current Account 18,104 - 18,104 -
Unity Trust Savings 105,552 - 105,552 105,446
Unity Trust Checking 6,444 - 6,444 15,312
Physics Account (47,518) - (47,518) (42,183)
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total cash funds 82,582 - 82,582 78,575
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Unrestricted funds 82,582 - 82,582 78,575
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

These accounts were approved at a meeting of the Trustees held on 10th June 2021.

Robin Hughes Chairman of the Trustees

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