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2023-08-31-accounts

Charity number: 1146064

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Report & Accounts

for the year

ended 31st August 2023

Wenn Townsend

Chartered Accountants

Oxford

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Contents

Page
Trustees’ Annual Report 1-9
Independent Auditor’s Report 10
Receipts and Payments Accounts 11
Statement of Assets and Liabilities 12

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31st August 2023

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 Robin Hughes (Chair)
Dr Sian Tedaldi (Administrator)
Website www.BPhO.org.uk
Independent examiner Wenn Townsend
Chartered Accountants
30 St Giles
Oxford
OX1 3LE

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

The Trustees present their Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31st August 2023.

Reference and Administration Details

The Charity name is The British Physics Olympiad Trust, and is also known as BPhO. The Charity has the registered number 1146064, and its principal address is:

The British Physics Olympiad Trust Department of Physics University of Oxford

Denys Wilkinson Building, Oxford, OX1 3RH

Trustees

The following Trustees held office during the year: Dr Anson Cheung Mr Robin Hughes Chair Dr Sian Tedaldi Administrator

Charitable Objects and Main Activities Undertaken

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

Website www.BPhO.org.uk

Structure, Governance and Management

The governing document is a Trust Deed dated 11th 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.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

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

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.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

With such a wide range of papers being produced (13 competitions this year), 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. Our paper setters are under some pressure to write papers whilst teaching full time in school. We have checkers, who are asked to look at the paper in detail and others who look at the topics and a broader view to see if the paper is realistic for the target audience.

Paper setters or Team Leaders are:

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.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

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 2800 papers for Round 1 in November this year. We have also received a similar number of scripts from ASDAN China, who organises the participation of Chinese independent schools in the BPhO competitions. For the BPhO Round 1 paper (a chargeable entry due to the cost of marking), non-feepaying schools are awarded four 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, Mr Guy Bagnall. A retired Head of Physics at Harrow School, Guy had been engaged in the BPhO for thirty years. Along with Cyril Isenberg, they formed a partnership which entailed running two International Physics Olympiads in the UK: in 1986 in Harrow and in 2000 in Leicester. They ran very successful UK teams from 1984 onwards, having the outright winners of the IPhO on two occasions, in 1989 and 1990. Guy wrote very interesting and often quite challenging questions for team selection. He was very interested in practical work and developed a number of selection camp practicals which would prove to be a challenge today, both for a student to do and for us to set up. He was undoubtedly good fun for us, but also inspirational for students.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

Main achievements during the year

IPhO Team: Aditya Tekriwal St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School & University of Oxford Alex Mylet Caterham School & University of Oxford Surrey Coy Zhu Nottingham High School & University of Cambridge Mali Jongman-Rios Hills Road Sixth Form College & University of Oxford Ojas Gulati Tiffin School & Massachusetts Institute of Technology Moosa Saghir (Res) St Olave's Grammar School & University of Cambridge

The IOAA in Poland in August 2023 was a great success. They were the top team, an extraordinary achievement. The team were selected at the online Easter Camp and trained over the summer. As usual the training was initiated with the Easter Training Camp at which a squad of fourteen students attended for training and selection. This activity is attracting some new schools of all categories, and also some individuals who have a singular interest in astronomy, a subject not undertaken by many schools.

 The IOAA team were: Ben Woodrow Hills Road Sixth Form College & University of Oxford Charlotte Stevenson King's College London Mathematics School & University of Oxford Freddie Weir Royal Grammar School, Guildford James Kennedy Elizabeth College, Guernsey & University of Oxford Ryan Lin Reading School & University of Oxford Liam O’Shea (Res.) Woodhouse College & University of Oxford

Beyond these two groups at the top end, we estimate that in excess of 40,000 students are engaged with the BPhO this year. The number of schools is 800 - 1000.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

The competition activities for this year have been:

Individual reports on most if the competitions are produced for teachers. They are downloaded from the Competition Platform, and include some statistics about entries and results and also the grade boundaries for the awards.

September 2022 - 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 2022 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. This paper is sent out as a resource and seems to find some interest amongst teachers and students, but it is hard to gauge how effective it is in gaining student numbers.

Nov 2022 – 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. This year the numbers rose to 2700, a significant increase from the previous year. This is a 2hr 40 min paper in school with a significant amount of choice in the questions, corresponding to a five hour paper in total. Four free entries (normally £18 per entry) were offered to all state schools. This does encourage a greater number of schools to participate.

The paper was also taken by a similar number of students in 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.

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 physics extension level for students. The intake of girls, whilst only amounting to 20-25%, 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.

Jan 2023 - 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, and need to be marked by only one or two people working together to provide consistency and moderation.

January 2023 - BPhO Round 2 : 120 students from 50 schools were invited to take this three-hour paper after their success in Round 1 in November. This paper tests a range of skills and 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, 13 students were invited to the “Oxford Easter Training Camp”. The numbers are limited for marking purposes.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

January 2023 – BAAO Competition Paper : around 80 students from 30 schools were either invited or, in a small number of cases, asked to take this paper. This included a small number of girls and also 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. Fourteen 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 2023 - Intermediate Physics Challenge Online: 4000 students participated from 200 schools , which was most encouraging.

March 2022 - Senior Physics Challenge Online : this is a Year 12 competition. Over 5000 students participated from nearly 400 schools .

The IPC and SPC online competitions were very successful as a substitution for the usual paper challenge problem solving papers. But the paper competitions are now back and do attract a significant entry (similar in number sot the online competitions, which are clearly not challenges in the same sense). They do engaged students with the assortment of questions which entertain and may challenge them occasionally.

May 2023 Junior Physics Challenge Online : this is a Year 10 competition and has been running for 4 years now. Numbers have risen again this year. But it is a popular competition and encourages thousands of students to develop their confidence in physics. The distribution of the marks is very similar to last year. We expect numbers to pick up again when schools open up.

The distributions of marks for male and female candidates are similar and the number of girls is slightly greater than boys entering. There is a difference, with girls less often only taking Paper 1 out of the two. Other factors play a role but it is not clear what they are.

Squad Selection : A squad of 27 students, decided on the results of Rounds 1 & 2, and the BAAO Paper were invited to the Training and Selection 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 14 students.

These activities satisfy our stated objectives to

 The selection and support of teams to represent Britain at the IPhO and IOAA.

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 IPhO organised in Tokyo. 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 2023: 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. After a Covid interlude, we had an exceptionally busy day with teams from two EuPhO competitions and two IPhOs, along with three Astro teams being present and receiving awards.

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Trustees’ Annual Report (continued) for the year ended 31st August 2023

Sponsors: We are fortunate to have the support of a new sponsor in G Research. They are willing to support our work in outreach, running competitions, marking and team training. We are in a position to develop new ideas and methods.

We have a new Competition Platform, modern coding and excellent support. This enables us to control the issuing of the challenge papers and running the online competitions. It is a great asset and will become even more useful over time.

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 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….. 27[th] June 2024………………………

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 2023 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

27 June 2024

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 31st August 2023

Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
2023 2022
£ £ £ £
Receipts
Receipts from educational activities 232,680 - 232,680 178,430
Bank interest received 2,751 - 2,751 158
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total receipts 235,431 - 235,431 178,588
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Payments
Administration staff costs 35,142 - 35,142 30,380
Accommodation 32,450 - 32,450 19,992
Travel and subsistence 23,239 - 23,239 14,084
Marketing 4,001 - 4,001 13,433
Printing, post, and stationery 2,245 - 2,245 2,329
Conference expenses 742 - 742 15,070
Subscriptions 397 - 397 5,575
Accountancy fees 1,590 - 1,590 2,915
Insurance 269 - 269 1247
Registration fees 7,420 - 7,420 5,477
Website costs 4,222 - 4,222 2,152
Bank charges 772 - 772 -
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total payments 112,489 - 112,489 111,531
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Net of receipts/(payments) 122,942 - 122,942 67,057
───── ───── ───── ─────
Transfers between funds - - - -
Cash funds as at 31st August 2022 231,629 - 231,629 164,572
───── ───── ───── ─────
Cash funds as at 31st August 2023 354,571 - 354,571 231,629
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

The British Physics Olympiad Trust

Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31st August 2023

Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Funds Funds Funds Funds
2023 2022
£ £ £ £
Cash at bank
Barclays Current Account 65,704 - 65,704 52,989
Unity Trust Savings 14,094 - 14,094 116,028
Unity Trust Checking 224,779 - 224,779 12,618
Physics Account 49,994 - 49,994 39,994
───── ───── ───── ─────
Total cash funds 354,571 - 354,571 231,629
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
Unrestricted funds 354,571 - 354,471 231,629
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

These accounts were approved at a meeting of the Trustees held on 16[th] September 2024

Robin Hughes Chairman of the Trustees