Diep Anh Nguyen, Angela Luong, Sophie Huang and Anagha Pai, all from 8LPV competed in the South East Finals for the CyberFirst Girls competition on Saturday. The event is run by the National Cyber Security Centre; the branch of the Security Service tasked with keeping the UK safe from computer threats. The competition was hosted at the National Air Traffic Services headquarters near Portsmouth and the BGS team went up against 11 other schools from the South East. 

The competition involved a gruelling day-long series of challenges to crack codes, solve puzzles and find hidden messages. The crown was ultimately claimed by Highgate School in North London, but BGS were definitely hot on their heels - at one point our team were running second on the leader board. The girls showed incredible drive and determination as well as amazing teamwork. Well done to all four!

Cybersecurity is a career field that currently has more than 30,000 unfilled vacancies in the UK alone, and women account for just 16% of the workforce. The NCSC runs the CyberFirst Girls competition for Year 8 girls each year to encourage more girls to consider this as a career path.

Mr Villazon, Head of Computer Science