On Monday 17 November 2025, Year 9 has the opportunity to visit Bletchley Park, the home of codebreaking during WW2. It was at this site that Alan Turing and the other 9000 members of staff broke the enigma code which helped the allies win the war, including planing the D-Day assault.
Over the last week Year 9 have learnt about the history of computers in their computer science lesson, the significance of what they did at Bletchley Park in their history lessons and also got the chance to break some of their own codes in their maths lessons.
With all that prepared knowledge they were ready for a guided tour around the park as well as a chance to explore in our school groups. We got to visit the main Manor House, see a replica of the Bombe (one of the first mechanical computers) and visit the huts where the majority of the staff worked. This included hut 8 which had Alan Turing’s office in it with his tea mug still chained to his radiator.
There was also an interactive session delivered by the staff at Bletchley Park following the most up to date information from GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters) on how to stay safe online and protect their private information. Using passwords and biometrics pupils got the chance to see how facial recognition software works and experience how computer science villains can steal information from public WiFi.
It was a fantastic day out, it a little cold, and was a perfect opportunity for pupils to experience an often-uncelebrated bit of British history. It also allowed pupils to see the importance of the female and Polish code breakers in that story.
