Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• YEAR 10 STUDENTS BREAK CODES WITH BLETCHLEY PARK EXPERTS

  Fri 31 Mar 2017

  On 30 March year 10 students met two visitors from Bletchley Park who each gave one hour presentations.

  Catherine spoke about cyber security and showed how easy it is for people to find out your password just by looking at information on social media such as your date of birth, which football team you support or the name of your cat. She then gave the students challenges to see how quickly they could crack the passwords in a range of problems. She also gave the students a task to track phone calls made by people to show how much information you can gain from records of calls made. This information includes where the person lives, who their friends are and where they go during the day which can lead to favourite shops, their place of work or other where other members of their family live.

  Tom spoke about why people want to send messages that can only be read by the intended recipient and not by anyone else. The students had a coded message that they needed to crack and with only a small amount of help everyone solved how the code worked. He gave examples of a range of different ways of encrypting messages so that they remain secret. He spoke about the importance of the person sending the message not knowing that the code had been broken by someone else. This happened in World War 2 when the Allies broke the German Enigma code but had to keep this secret so that they Allies could continue to read secretly the German messages.

  He also gave the students the opportunity to code a short message on an Enigma machine and then to see how to decode it.

  They were both very interesting presentations and gave Year 10 students lots of things to think about in terms of cyber security and how secrecy can be very important when sending messages.

  Year 10 students were fantastic whilst listening to their presentations. They were engaged in the tasks and modelled excellent behaviour for learning.

  Thank you to everyone who was involved today in getting students to the right place at the right time, coming up to attend the presentations and fixing minor problems. It all led to a very successful day.

  DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE?

  If you are interested in learning more about Bletchley Park their website is https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

  For a chance to practice breaking codes there are lots of websites that give you the opportunity. Here are three:

  https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/break-the-code

  https://www.mathsweek.ie/2012/puzzles/code-breaking-for-young-secret-agents

  And this last one was set by GCHQ a few years ago to recruit new spies

  https://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/codeexplained.html

  If you are interested in studying or working with cyber security, a number of universities offer courses including Warwick, Surrey, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham. For jobs in cyber security you need experience in computing first. Search on line for computer jobs to find out what qualifications you would need for they type of job you might want to do.

  

• ACTIVE YOUNG SCIENTISTS

  Fri 24 Mar 2017

  In the past week Year 7 have had two opportunities to see science in new ways. On 9^th March Cordi Scott from the University of Kent gave a one hour presentation entitled “Cool Physics” in which she explained how the arrangement of particles changes when we cool objects down. She used liquid nitrogen to show us what happens to a balloon, a banana and flowers. She also gave students, and staff, the opportunity to have their heads in the clouds. We think Mr. O’Keeffe enjoyed the experience!

  On 16^th March Year 7 had a trip to Herstmonceux Science Centre for British Science Week. All the students had opportunities to explore a wide range of hands on experiments, to try to design a water course to make a mini-water wheel turn, and to learn about the history of the Herstmonceux telescopes. There were two team challenges involving building a bridge in the shortest possible time and building the tallest tower. Congratulations to Mrs. Emmanuel’s group who came out as the overall winners.

  The students also attended a 30 minute interactive presentation showing how the Earth and its human inhabitants have changed. Year 7 were reminded that they are the future of science and it will be up to their generation to solve some of the problems caused by pollution.

  We were shown how a tornado is formed and Mr. Barley tested some physics hoping that the balloon full of water over his head would not burst! We are happy to say that he remained dry.

  Two students have written to say what they enjoyed most at Herstmonceux

  I went on the trip to Herstmonceux Observatory Centre- It was BRILLIANT! We did so many activities which not only were fun but educational at the same time. We entered a water puzzle, water tornados and we had an awesome show at the start. At the end we had a competition on who gathered the most points in some challenges. Although it was a long drive it was definitely worth the wait. Everyone in the end achieved something and everyone loved it.

  THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Alex, 7MI1

  I went on the trip to Herstmonceux Observatory Centre – it was seriously amazing! Many activities included: the Water Area, Discovery Park, Observatory Tower and much, much more. My personal favourite was the Science Corridor, because it had so many different activities and mini experiments to try out (The Vacuum Lift was my highlight of the day!). Furthermore, the Gift Shop was full of epic objects including some bouncing putty and beautiful animal ornaments! Even without my group winning the overall prize, it was still an exciting day.

  Ella, 7MI1

  Year 7 enjoyed both events and we were all very proud of their behaviour throughout both events.

  

• COMPUTER SCIENCE CODE BREAKERS

  Wed 15 Mar 2017

  St Simon Stock Computer Science Students were recently presented with the opportunity of visiting one of the most renowned computing facilities in England – Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park developed the first large scale code breaking organisation in the world. The intelligence produced at Bletchley Park played a major role in winning World War Two and is considered to have shortened the war by over two years saving many lives.

  Our students visited the huts where the code breaking was completed and even saw and touched the infamous enigma machine. Students participated in workshops, in which they broke codes and ciphers, and learned whether they had the skills to be the codebreakers of the future. A great time was had by all!

  

• NORWEGIAN TEACHERS VISIT ST SIMON STOCK

  Fri 10 Mar 2017
  This week we were pleased to play host to a group of 20 teachers from Norway, who visited our school as part of a cultural exchange through Canterbury Christ Church University. During their visit the teachers observed some of our lessons so that they could learn about the English educational system. Teachers in Norway are technical specialists in their field and teach topics as varied as mechanics, media health, floristry, and textiles. It is usual in Norway for teachers to have excelled in their vocational specialism before entering the teaching profession.

  

• MRS DENNY RUNS 10 KM FOR THE HEART OF KENT HOSPICE

  Fri 10 Mar 2017

  Well done to Mrs Denny who this weekend ran 10 km for the Heart of Kent Hospice. If you would like to make a small contribution to a worthy cause, click here to visit Mrs Denny’s ‘Just Giving’ page.