By Maya M, Year 10

On 19th June, the Year 10 computing classes went on a trip to Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park is known for being the home of legendary code breakers such as Alan Turing, Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers. The groups toured the mansion and a selection of huts, containing exhibitions on data, code breaking and even the National Radio Centre. We learnt about Bletchley’s history as a manor house and how it was bought by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) which later became GCHQ. We found the exhibition on the Lorenz code particularly interesting as it is one of Bletchley’s lesser known successes as well as the Colossus, the world’s first real computer.

It was fascinating to hear the interviews with people who worked at Bletchley during the war, and to see the Bombe, the machine designed to decode the enigma. Possibly the most exciting part of the day was the National Radio Centre, in which groups contacted Gerald from Wales and Richard from England, as well as tuning in to some Albanian Radio!