Ms Davies (Computer Science Teacher)
Over the last fortnight, over 30 Year 8 girls have taken part in the 2020 CyberFirst Girls Competition. The competition, run by the National Cyber Security Centre, (part of GCHQ) 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.
This year the competition was extended to 10 days and began on Monday 13th January (ended Wednesday 22nd January). Nine teams have been challenging themselves across four different disciplines: logic and coding, networking, cryptography and cyber security. Each question is derived from skills used every day by cyber security professionals and all can be answered using techniques freely available on the internet.
The girls have demonstrated great resilience and dedication, working together to solve as many challenges as they can, while having fun.
Sarah Pepper and Eva Ng (Year 8) said: “The competition has helped us to think like a computer scientist. Before the program, looking at the examples was as if someone had blindfolded us. But now, looking at them again, the competition has helped us see things we didn’t think of before. The competition encouraged us to work hard, as a team to uncover some simple, but some terrifyingly difficult, problems. From logic and coding, to Cryptography! Thanks for the opportunity!”
Lara Aellen (Year 8) said: “I have really enjoyed taking part in the Cyber First competition ; it helps you develop problem solving skills , resilience, teamwork and is great fun too!”
