Our very own Cyber champions, Anoushka, Erinna, Leandra and Limonee, enjoyed another special treat this week acknowledging their success in the 2019 CyberFirst Girls competition - a trip to Windsor Castle to have afternoon tea with The Duke of York, Prince Andrew.
The girls did exceptionally well earlier this year when they progressed to the final of this Year’s girls competition in Edinburgh. Of the 12,000 girls who took part in the GCHQ online rounds, only 40 - ten teams of four - made it to this final stage in Scotland’s first city. And while Team GL1TCH did not win the competition, their teamwork, tenacity and problem solving skills meant they came very close!
In Windsor, the Duke had lots of words of encouragement about the important role that young women will have in the cyber security of our nation and businesses in the future - essential if the current skills gap in this area is to be addressed. Royal tea, sandwiches and cake were aplenty and Team GL1TCH did a great job cracking the coding challenges set up around the room from playfair and Caesar ciphers, to codebooks, and the legendary Bletchley Park recruitment Telegraph crossword from 1942. The sun was shinning in Windsor and a great day was had by all!
We hope the girls’ achievements, plus three years in the CyberFirst final for Queen's, will encourage our budding cyberists currently in Year 7 to get involved in next year's competition.