Cyber Explorers, an initiative led by the UK Government, is an online learning programme for cyber security and is a free resource for young people. This year, they ran the Cyber Explorers Cup for the third time. The competition is an innovative experience designed to ignite a passion for cyber security among secondary school age students across the UK. This unique contest offers a blend of education, technology and excitement, aiming to challenge young minds and introduce them to the ever-evolving world of cyber security whilst providing experience in critical thinking and teamwork.

This year, the Cyber Explorer Cup returns for its third year as a fun, interactive cyber security competition with challenges based on the Cyber Explorers learning programme content. Students will take on a crucial mission to help the Cyber Squad fix Cyber City’s brand-new Smart Mall. Its advanced AI system, SAM-U.L, has become corrupted – leaving shelves empty, payments broken, and forcing the mall to close. The school teams that restore SAM-U.L to the highest standard and help reopen the mall, achieving the top scores in the fastest time, will be named Cyber Explorers Cup 2026 champions.

The competition runs from 16^th March to 20^th March 2026 and our two participants chose 19^th March 2026 to participate in this competition. School teams will compete virtually from their own schools. We had a timed, one-hour window to complete the competition challenges. This year’s competition content is focused on Information Security. Students will be able to access the Cyber Explorers learning programme during the competition to identify the correct answers. Challenges will include a variety of questions and puzzles based on the Cyber Explorers platform content. Each category will include multiple questions, which when answered correctly, will reveal additional challenges.

When the competition was over, our students said that the questions were challenging but nonetheless, I was very proud that we had students who were brave enough to face the challenge and whether or not, that they may enter into the 50 winning teams across the UK, it is the journey of participating in the competition that matters. I am looking forward to the 1^st April 2026 when the winning teams are announced.

I also thank the teachers’ support that they allowed the students to leave their lessons in order to complete this competition on 19th March 2026 and the school admin team that helped change the students’ timetable, enabling them to leave their usual timetabled lessons.