I am glad that in IT STEM, we are encouraging the Yr8 girls to partake in the CyberFirst Competition 2023-2024 run by the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre). This is a government’s initiative to encourage more girls to consider computer science as an option at school and a career in cyber security.

We have promoted the event and we had twelve Year 8 girls who were keen to join the competition which ran from 20^th November 2023 to 29^th November 2023. The participants would have to complete challenges online in 10 days by using their Internet searching skills and some computing knowledge. They would learnt cyber security as they went through the challenges. It would be very good if the Year 8 girls possess some lateral thinking skills and could think outside the box in order to solve the challenges in the competition.

The girls took the challenges with much enthusiasm and they had worked very hard to achieve the points. The CZKA team scored 6122 points, the Power Lady team scored 4542 and the SALS team scored 4060 points. Personally, as a teacher myself, I am very proud of their commitment and achievement. Well done Year 8 girls!

The competition was just over and the results of the competition was announced on Monday 4^th December 2023, The Bushey Meads School is in the top 100 schools list and we are at the 50^th place! Well done Year 8 girls!

A big thank you to the Year 8 CDCs who have helped with demonstrating the presentation to their CDC members and have encouraged the Year 8 girls to consider joining this competition.

Also, a big thank you to those teaching staff whose lessons were affected and they have shown much support towards the competition.