Earlier this month four girls in Year 8 competed in the regional finals of this year's CyberFirst Girls' Competition. Girls from across the United Kingdom entered the qualifying rounds in November of last year. In the qualifying rounds, the girls had to solve complex programming problems, use different methods of cryptography and test their knowledge of all things computing to win through to the regional finals. As well as performing exceptionally in these areas they had to work effectively as a team which they did with some distinction.
On the day of the finals which were held at RTC North in Sunderland, the girls were presented with seven challenges devised by organisations involved in cyber security. The girls rose to every challenge and performed very well on the day, gaining lots of compliments from the organisers along the way. One pupil was even lucky (brave) enough to be given £10 by the guest speaker at the event.
The event was hosted by CyberFirst which is the educational arm of GCHQ whose aim is the encourage more pupils into Computer Science and Cyber with a particular focus, in this competition, on girls entering the profession. Hopefully, this has inspired the girls and other girls in our school to take up the challenge in the future and to appreciate that Computing is an option for them both as a GCSE and, potentially, as a career.