Over two days, Year 9 put their decoding skills to the test as they tried cribbing, deciphering and decoding on a visit to Bletchley Park museum on a maths (and history) trip.

Touring the mansion and its grounds, on which still stand the purpose-built 1940's code-breaking headquarters of the Second World War, the students learnt about the German enigma encryption machine.

A guided tour of the Park gave them a detailed description of what life was like for the 9,000 code breakers who worked at Bletchley, including the famous Alan Turing, and how hard they all worked day in, day out and around the clock, to relentlessly try to intercept the Nazi war messages.

It was a busy day, split up into lots of sessions which allowed the student to explore the grounds and museum exhibitions:  There was interactive code-breaking, D-Day and Art Exhibitions, costume dressing, ballroom dancing, ice cream eating and time to take a quick break by the lake.

Students also took part in a workshop on codebreaking and deciphering where they were split into groups and each given a different code to decipher.  When each team's code had been cracked, the solutions all pieced together the ultimate code.  This illustrated the way in which the WWII secrets were protected by code-breakers only ever working on their own specific pieces of code.

Amazingly, the students even got the chance to see and use one of the rare remaining working enigma machines in action!  They learnt how the machine worked using its series of interchangeable rotors and plug board to pair letters, and that it offered 103 sextillion possible settings to choose from!

Thank you to Mrs Odrich-Damailie for organising the double trip and to all of the students for their superb behaviour.