This year, students and staff at our school embraced the GCHQ Christmas Challenge, testing their problem-solving skills and creativity with the intelligence agency’s annual brain-teaser. The top sets in Years 7, 8, and 9 tackled the puzzles during their lessons, diving into a series of challenging tasks designed to stretch their logical thinking and teamwork.

The puzzles, released annually by GCHQ, are renowned for their complexity and connection to real-world skills such as codebreaking, problem-solving, and pattern recognition. Students worked collaboratively to decode clues, crack ciphers, and solve riddles, channelling the same critical thinking skills used by intelligence professionals.

Participation wasn’t limited to lessons. Other students, staff took on the challenge in their own time. The collaborative spirit across the school was inspiring, with participants sharing ideas and working together to conquer the puzzles.

This event highlighted the importance of resilience, creativity, and teamwork, qualities that align with the values we aim to foster in our school community. Congratulations to everyone who participated, in particular: J, Choi 10A1, O. Perret 10A1, A. Hannon 10B1 and O Warrilow 9T1 who where the first group to finish the challenge.