A record 5057 students from 492 schools took part in the 2014 British Biology Olympiad (BBO).

Certificates and medals will be posted to schools over the next few weeks. Medal winners will also be invited to an awards ceremony at the Royal Society in June where Professor Alice Roberts will be the guest speaker.

In addition to encouraging and rewarding students who have a keen interest in biology, the BBO is the first stage of selecting the team of four students to represent the UK at the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) where they will compete against the top young biologists from more than sixty countries. High scoring BBO students will have the opportunity to take a more demanding exam later this month, sixteen of these will be invited to take part in team selection at the University of Warwick from 13th - 16th April and the 25th IBO will take place in July on the beautiful island of Bali.

Dr Andrew Treharne, assistant head at AKS Lytham, leads the team of volunteers which organises the competition. He says: “The standard of entries this year was very high, many congratulations to all the students who have been awarded certificates and medals. The UK teams have had considerable success at the International Biology Olympiad over the last sixteen years and I’m very grateful to BBSRC for its continued support of the UK’s participation in this prestigious competition.”