Teenagers enter physics competition (From Borehamwood Times)

Pupils from Yavneh College, Borehamwood, enter Weizmann Safe Cracking competition

2:52pm Monday 11th February 2013 in News By Anna Slater

Teenagers gave Isaac Newton a run for his money when they entered a physics competition to design an “uncrackable” safe.

The pupils from Yavneh College, in Hillside Avenue, Borehamwood, entered the Weizmann Safe Cracking competition at JCoSS School, in Barnet, yesterday.

The 16 year-olds – Elliot Shayle, Ben Schapira, Sam Massias, Ben Kaufman, Scott Michaels and Daniel Greenblatt – spent the last few months designing the safe.

Their physics teacher, Andrew Macaulay, said they did “incredibly well” as they juggled building the safe with revising for their AS-level mock exams.

He added: “They were such a dedicated team – they gave up their free periods, stayed after school and even came in on weekends to get their safe finished on time.

“They were so dedicated to their cause and decided they would not stop until they built the perfect safe.

“They bought everything on the internet themselves and just got on with it – it really was so inspiring to see.”

The boys – who are all studying physics for A-level, were only given one month to try and build their ‘uncrackable’ safe.

During the competition, teams from seven other schools across London had to try and break into another group’s safe using basic physics principles.

Despite not making it through to the next stage of the competition in Israel, the students are still “holding their heads up high.

Mr Macaulay added: “I have never been as proud of a set of pupils as I was when I saw them present their safe and crack other entries.

“They were exposed to a type of interview that I would expect from an Oxbridge applicant and performed admirably.”