21 October 2026

A Weekend at The Island: Coding Success and Mathematics Olympiads

Team programming, an international mathematics olympiad and a competition organised by a student at the boarding house made for an eventful weekend for TLF scholars at The Island School in Cyprus.

JetBrains Coding Cup: five TLF teams among the best

Saturday began with the JetBrains Coding Cup. Students in Grades 9–11 headed to the JetBrains office in Limassol for three hours of team programming: tackling challenging problems, finding solutions and debugging their code.

Participants listening to the rules before a programming competition

Students gathered around a table with laptops and souvenirs at the JetBrains office

A team of students discussing a problem at their laptops

The result: five TLF teams among the best! Our scholars took first, second and third places, while two more teams received honourable mentions.

It was especially rewarding to spend the day with our friends at JetBrains, explore the company's workspace and take home souvenirs.

SEAMO: experiencing an international mathematics olympiad

On Sunday, programming gave way to mathematics. Cyprus hosted its first qualifying round of SEAMO (Southeast Asian Mathematical Olympiad), organised by the Fractal olympiad mathematics team.

Our scholars joined in too, taking another opportunity to try an international olympiad format and gain new competition experience.

Students working on written mathematics problems at their desks

Participants concentrating on their tasks in a classroom

A mathematics olympiad of their own

There was plenty happening at the boarding house too. Grade 10 student Elias Holmen organised his own mathematics olympiad right where the students live.

He came up with the idea himself, outside the school timetable and without an assignment from a teacher. Elias simply wanted to bring together students who, like him, enjoy exploring challenging and beautiful mathematics. Anyone interested was welcome to join.