The Bletchley Park Trip on the First Enrichment Day

On the 27^th September 2024, Bushey Meads School had the first Enrichment Day for this academy year. The computing department organised an educational trip and took the GCSE computer science students to Bletchley Park.

The visit will include a learning session (a workshop led by the Museum staff), an outside guided tour (led by the Museum staff), shop visit and free time during which students can explore Bletchley Park’s exhibitions and its historical buildings.

In the workshop, the students learned about symmetric encryption, asymmetric encryption and they tried to send messages using both encryption techniques. They also learned about the future of quantum computing that may have influences to modern-day encryption techniques.

During the guided tour, the museum guide explained the history of the Bletchley Park’s involvement in the combat against the German during the second world war. She has explained why Bletchley Park was chosen, that was owing to the strategic position of the place between Oxford University and Cambridge University plus there was a working train track between these two cities.

The guide also explained some difficulties that the Bletchley Park team had to overcome in order to transport the intercepted enemies’ messages to Bletchley Park for decryption. This has made us realise that the entire operation Enigma was not just about Alan Turing’s work, but it was a very dedicated team work that made the success of the operation.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the activities and they have behaved excellently at the Park. As a teaching staff myself, I am also very pleased with the Year 10 students’ achievement and behaviour on that day.