A COMPUTING whizz from Ormiston Park Academy in Essex is to take on the world after he beat off competition from 10,000 rivals to clinch victory in the UK Microsoft Championships.
Alfie Fuller-Burgess was crowned national champion to clinch his place at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship Final in Dallas, USA, in August.
And in a remarkable one-two, Logan Cooper – who like Alfie is in Year 9 at Ormiston Park Academy, in South Ockendon – came second.
Alfie and Logan reached the national final, which included university students, by showcasing their Microsoft Word skills in an online examination, entered by 10,000 students across the country.
That whittled the field down to just 10 for the final at Microsoft UK HQ in Reading, Berkshire – and Alfie and Logan came out on top.
Huw Derrick, Principal at Ormiston Park Academy, said the students’ success was a huge achievement – and put it down to their hard work and expertise, and the introduction at the academy of an Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) course. Forty-three students at the academy have already achieved MOS certification, four of whom, including Alfie and Logan, have gone on to achieve Master status. Another student, George Repole, has passed nine specialist exams.
Huw Derrick, Principal of Ormiston Park Academy, said:
“This is another example of the high standards being achieved by our students in every year group across a broad and balanced range of studies.
“We are so proud of Alfie and Logan for achieving this incredible national level of achievement in the field of computing software use.”
Laurence Boulter, ICT Learning Leader at Park Academy, said:
“We thought Alfie and Logan were doing well when they became among the youngest pupils ever to achieve Master status.
"When Alfie walked out of the examination room after 14 minutes with a perfect score we became really excited. When Logan came out a few minutes later we began to think the impossible was about to happen. For them to come first and second is outstanding, especially when you consider the remaining eight candidates in the national final were predominantly university students.”
