Last week 54 codebreakers in Year 8 challenged themselves in the annual CyberFirst Girls Competition. 

Organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, the competition aims to provide a fun but challenging environment to encourage and inspire the next generation of young women to consider computer science as an option with a view to a future career in cyber security.

Many congratulations to the winning team at BGS, The ENIAC Girls, which comprised of Isabel Baker, Alex Gentry, Lottie Giles and Cecilia Kilpatrick. We now wait to hear if they are in the top teams nationally to go to this year’s grand final.

Lottie Giles said: “As I had never done anything like it before I was really able to test out new skills and it was a great experience. I also really liked that we were able to discover and solve these new problems independently as a group.

Alice Toone enjoyed the team experience, she said: “I enjoyed Cyber First so much, I thought that it was an amazing experience, it was great that lots of Year 8s did it, although we were competing against each other, it felt like we were all part of one team.”

Ms Davies, Digital Design Creator, adds: “It was tremendous to see so many girls take part in this year's competition at BGS. The girls found every second they could to work on the puzzles and have been incredibly resourceful and tenacious in their pursuit. All participants can now apply for a free place on a 4-day residential course run by NCSC around the country. This is a fantastic opportunity not to be missed.”

The week-long competition which ended on Monday has seen a record number of entries this year. Find out more about the competition here.