Computer Science Pupils Have The Brain Power To Make A Cracking Day Out!

Wednesday, 25 April, Mrs Qadri, Head of ICT & Computer Science, took a group of eight Year 9 pupils to the University of Manchester for their Alan Turing Cryptology Day.

 

Along with other schools from around the UK, the pupils were set for a day of code-breaking activities. The main event was a live cipher decryption competition against all the other teams, in which our eight pupils split off into teams of four to attempt these challenges. 

 

Prior to the event, the university held an online competition via their Alan Turing Cryptography website, entailing teams of students from across the country taking part in solving weekly challenge codes. 

 

“The competition was hard,” said Louis.  “Most of the challenges were difficult but there were some that we could handle.  Even though it was hard, we still had fun.  Following the competition, we moved on to the lecture hall where we learned about the different ways we could use cryptology in a career.”

 

Fay added, “The competition was really fun and educational.  Me and the group practised beforehand and through our lunchbreaks. The competition was difficult however we managed to break three quarters of the codes by the end.  I particularly enjoyed the lecture afterwards; it was interesting to learn about the job opportunities you could get thanks to cryptology.”  Fay ended, “The whole experience was interesting and I would definitely like to do the competition again next year.”

 

Unfortunately, the Priory pupils did not win either competition, however Mrs Qadri confirmed they did very well after only discovering the existence of this event last year, a few months before the online competition commenced. 

 

Colin ended by saying “Both teams vow to return next year now that we have gained experience in cracking codes!”