This track is authored and taught by a vetted specialist tutor (enhanced DBS checked, sample lessons and marking vetted before they teach), recruited and quality controlled by the founder. The founder does not claim expertise in this subject, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
Competitions covered
UKLO Round 1 at Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced levels; Round 2; the International Linguistics Olympiad pathway.
Who can enter
Open to school pupils across Key Stages 2 to 5; we target secondary students, roughly Years 7 to 13. No knowledge of any particular language is needed.
Usual timing
Advanced Round 1 entries usually close in early November and the paper is usually sat in November; Round 2 usually follows in February or March.
Levels in this track
Three levels, one route map
Foundation
Breakthrough and Foundation puzzles: spotting patterns in unfamiliar languages, sounds, scripts and word structure.
Challenge
Intermediate standard: grammar systems, number systems, writing systems and translation puzzles under time limits.
Olympiad
Advanced standard: a 2.5-hour paper of hard language-data problems, then Round 2 training with the track tutor.