On Tuesday a trip to Bletchley Park sparked Year 7 curiosity about how their maths skills could be practically applied. They used their mathematical thinking and problem solving skills to crack a number of code breaking tasks, decipher messages and solve puzzles. They also learned about the invaluable role of code breakers during WW2 and enjoyed the rare opportunity to use a genuine Enigma machine.
Bletchley Park in the Buckinghamshire countryside was the site of some incredible achievements of Britain’s World War Two Codebreakers. Year 7 had a guided visit of the grounds and the huts where the Codebreakers worked, learning about codes and ciphers, and finding out how the work carried out there was the basis of modern computing, a resource that we all value and use.
Here is a write up of the day by Hannah G on her experience of the trip:
I really enjoyed Bletchley park and here is why…We arrived at Bletchley Park on time then made our way to our first workshop. This was all about coding (this was my favourite part!) We all sat in different groups and all had a booklet with different coding tasks to complete. Then we learnt about the enigma machine and got to have a go typing a letter on it!
Next we had a look around the huts where the people had worked during the war decoding the messages. This was interesting as there were descriptions of the war and what each room was used for and who had worked there.
After lunch we met with our tour guide Carly, she then took us to the mansion and we had a look in the rooms in our groups. We got to see where lots of different famous decoders from the war worked and their individual offices. Then Carly showed us around the huts of where some of the workers lived and told us about them.
Before going home we went to the gift shop and bought our souvenirs of the day and made our way to the coach. The day was brilliant. Thank you Mr Collins for taking us there for the day!
Categories: News Category 1