Grey Coat 14 Issue 18: December 2011 Year 11 Mathmatics Trip to National Codes Centre


“Hello, my name is dah dah dit dit dah dit dah dit,” were the first words of Mike, our guide to Bletchley Park. He explained that this was his name spelt in Morse code – just one of many mysteries and codes that we were to discover that day.


Bletchley Park was the perfect destination for a Maths trip, as it housed the workplace of the top secret code breakers during the Second World War. Mathematical and logical geniuses were rounded up from the top universities, chess teams and crossword competitions, and enlisted to work at intercepting and cracking the German army and navy Enigma coded messages.


One of these geniuses was Alan Turing, who was the first to come up with the concept of a ‘computer’ as a machine


were so complex they needed machines to be able to churn through all the possible answers. We saw a reconstruction of The Bombe, invented by Turing, and also Colossus, developed by Tommy Flowers. We even got to press the letter buttons on an original Enigma machine, the apparatus the Germans used to create their codes, and see the bulb on the letter each represented light up.


It was an amazing experience to be in a place that had contributed so much to history, but was yet so secret at the time when it was in action. It was inspiring to find out how much the Allies owed to this group of mathematicians - it is said that, without them, the war could have gone on for another two to four years.


Molly Clark 11Y


and it was so intriguing to see the tiny components whose position changed the entire message. There were clearly some very intelligent people working at Bletchley Park! It was a great day! Thomasin Adams 11G


Our trip to Bletchley Park was really interesting! It was a mix of history and maths, and it was fascinating to see real machines that were actually used in the war, or models of them. For example, we got to have a go on the enigma machine, which was the German cipher machine. The trip made very real to us the work of incredibly clever and dedicated people during the war, many of whom worked and lived at Bletchley Park, and it was also a fun day out. Alice Forward 11Y


When I was first told about the trip I thought it was going to be dull because I thought there was no way that a Maths trip could be fun, but I was surprisingly wrong. Throughout the whole day I was taught fascinating facts. I got to see the first ever computer at work and learnt about coding. The trip was really enjoyable as I'm sure my class would agree. We are all very grateful for our tour guide and hope that classes in the years to come that get to visit Bletchley Park enjoy it as much as we did.


Shannon Blackwood 11G Year 11 students beside the actual WW2 Enigma Machine


rather than a human worker – we got to walk past the front door of the house in which he lived while at Bletchley.


We got to see some of the ground- breaking inventions that were developed to help intercept and solve the codes that


The trip to Bletchley Park was very interesting and beneficial. The great thing about it was learning about the astonishing detail of each code and the method needed to break it; each machine and process was so intricate


Learning about the role of codebreakers in WWII was an interesting and worthwhile experience for both students and teachers. Everyone enjoyed the day including our tour guide, Mike Clayton, Volunteer Educator at Bletchley Park. He wrote the following in his letter to the school: “Please say to the girls that I very much enjoyed working with them - they were an interested, clever, and enthusiastic audience, which made it a rewarding day for me!”


Mrs Ramage


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