Last fortnight 42 codebreakers in Year 8 challenged themselves in the annual CyberFirst Girls Competition, run by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Over 10 days, 11 teams competed to solve as many puzzles as possible. The competition aims to provide a fun but challenging environment to encourage and inspire the next generation of young women to consider a future career in cyber security by pursuing their studies in computer science.

Many congratulations to the winning team at BGS, Cyberspace, which consisted of Holly Blewitt, Tiya Dhaliwal, Asha Kirkpatrick and Abigail Rocque. As one of the top teams in the region, they now go forward to the semi-final in March to compete for a place in the national finals. Holly explained: "I really enjoyed doing all of the challenges even if some of them were quite tricky."

Ms Davies, Computer Science Teacher, adds: “In the fifth year of the competition, our Year 8 girls continue to demonstrate their great determination and dedication. Many of our teams did incredibly well this year, but only one can represent BGS at the semi-finals. I encourage any student interested in finding out more to book a place on one of the upcoming free CyberFirst courses.”

The ten-day competition saw the highest scores yet at BGS as the top teams raced to crack the challenges. Find out more about the competition HERE.