In Term 3 of the last academic year, the Computing Society ran the Competitive Programming CCA. This CCA aimed to provide students with a creative, collaborative environment to explore programming and computational thinking. Whether through competition questions or learning new programming concepts, the participants developed both technical skills and teamwork. The society’s mission is to allow students to engage with Computer Science beyond their classroom syllabus, and this CCA played a significant role in that.
About the CCA
The Competitive Programming CCA focused on introducing students to new coding concepts beyond what they would learn in class, as well as techniques used in competitions. Students engaged in sessions that challenged their ability to apply mathematical and computational concepts and translate those ideas into code. Each week, we prepared presentations and various problems on different coding concepts, from simple searching algorithms to advanced recursive functions.
All members of the Computing Society Board of Directors contributed to preparing the content presented each week. We worked to simplify complex concepts into smaller, more understandable ideas suitable for programmers of all levels. During the sessions, we also actively assisted students with any coding-related problems, such as debugging their first-attempt programmes, explaining concepts in depth, and responding to their concerns — ensuring that everyone could progress at their own pace.
One memorable session involved teaching file handling, where students learned to open, close, and manipulate files using different modes such as “r”, “w”, and “a”. We also taught more efficient and practical approaches, such as using the with open() statement and incorporating exception handling to automatically terminate the programme when an error is encountered. This helped participants understand good programming practices and error management. Students were impressed by the interaction between code and files stored on the computer, and by realising how advanced algorithms can have a profound impact on the world, beginning with such a fundamental built-in function. Through this, we have sparked their curiosity in programming, and we hope to see their interest in exploring code continue to grow within the school.
The Computing Society will continue its mission to develop as a hub for innovation and collaboration moving into this academic year. As we hand over the society to its new Board of Directors, we hope that students will continue to explore their passion for computing through the community we have cultivated.
Dylan S. and Eason T.
Year 13 Students