Cryptography Competition

Since the start of the year a number of students from Ely College have been meeting in teams to compete in the 2016 Alan Turning Cryptography Competition that is currently running across secondary schools nationwide. Now in its fourth year, the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester developed this web-based competition, and now monitors its progress with regular updates to a leaderboard where over a thousand schools are ranked.

With weekly chapters released online, the story follows characters Mike and Ellie, two code-breaking kids who get caught up in cryptographic adventures. Students must solve a number of cryptographic problems as they go through each adventure. The problems do not need any sophisticated mathematics to solve, neither do they require the use of computers. Instead, logical thought and problem-solving abilities are all that is required. Over the course of the week before the next puzzle is released, students work against the countdown to gain the maximum number of points to take them up the rankings.

Meeting with Mrs Szymanski on Mondays afterschool, Ely College has four teams;  ‘Arsenic Oxide’, ‘Cypher Pros’, ‘Rubiks Riddlers’ and ‘Calculator 5’. These students have shown us some excellent Ely 8 attributes and have even been leading their own learning by challenging each other with further cryptographic puzzles outside of school, meeting up to enjoy the social benefits of team work as well as the brain teasers on offer each week. Earlier this month we had some exciting news for our new Cryptography Club.

The University of Manchester inform us that team ‘Rubik Riddlers’, which is comprised of team members George Sivyer, Lukas Bonilla, Zach Wymer and Aidan Rogers have won a spot-prize for their quick work during Chapter 1. While there are a limited number of highly sought after prizes for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place in the final rankings, these spot prizes are chosen at random from all teams who have solved each Chapter once the subsequent Chapter is released. Each team member won a £10 amazon gift voucher.

Congratulations to the Rubik Riddlers!

There is much to celebrate amongst the other teams as well. All our student have risen up the leaderboard in the last few weeks with their quick solutions, beating other local schools we know are also in the competition, such as King’s Ely and Comberton Village College. Well done all of you! Keep up the good work.

 

Arsenic Oxide:                                                63

CypherPros:                                                   164

Calculator5:                                                    278

Rubiks Riddlers:                                             301

 

The Mavis Bateys (Kings Ely):                         610

Epic Decoders (Comberton VC):                    215

The Turinators (Comberton VC):                    756

 

If you are interested in Cryptography and want to learn more, or want to play along with the challenges each week please follow the link here. You don't need to be an expert mathematician or a computing whizz to take part. You just need to be good at problem-solving and thinking logically.

As part of our drive to improve literacy at the college and to close the achievement gap for our boys, on Wednesday evening we launched our ‘Lads and Dads, Mums and Sons’ project which was held in our Learning Resource Centre. Families took part took part in reading games, book challenges and fun reading-related activities. 

A spokesperson for Ely College said: “It was lovely to welcome so many families into our library for the evening. This project is just one of the many ways we are working with parents and carers to engage them in their children’s learning, and is part of a wider programme of literacy support for students". 

As well as our Lads and Dads, Mums and Sons evening, we have provided dictionaries for all of our Year 7 students this term, with grateful support from a local charity. We’ve also signed up to the Premier League Reading Stars programme through the National Literacy Trust.

To coincide with World Book Week, we have arranged for renowned author, Julian Sedgwick, to visit Ely College and talk to students about his books, so lots of exciting literary events to look forward to!

We will also be working with local primary schools and inviting their Year 6 students into Ely College to spend some time in our library and work with our Learning Resource Manager Mrs Shaw so they start to become familiar with college and some of the resources that will be available to them.

The newly formed  Ely College PSFA will be holding a Valentines Disco on 12th February at the College for lower school students; Years 7,8,9.

Sophie Martin, Chairperson of the PSFA, has been delighted by the offers of help from both parents, carers and staff, but if anyone else would like to offer help on the night please contact her on smartin@elycollege.co.uk.

We are hoping that the disco will be a huge success and a great launch to our new PSFA enabling  the college to raise funds for the college.

Further events are already being discussed, and we are all very much looking forward to meeting many more volunteers into our PSFA.

 

Students attended a presentation by Mr Kevin Symons ; Director of Akeva Safety Solutions Ltd on matters of Health, Safety and Welfare within the construction industry.

 

Akeva have a diverse range of clients ranging from small private developments up to multi-million pound retail, industrial, agricultural and infra-structure clients. The presentation was tailored to meet the students course specification and it included a range of graphic images showing what happens when Health, Safety and Welfare is nor followed correctly – not for the squeamish!

 

Ely College delivers a range of vocational education including Construction, Engineering, Hospitality and Business. We are proud of our links with industry and welcome visitors from the community to share their expertise and knowledge.

A Level health and social care pupils Charlotte Braybrooke, Jasmine McDonald Richardson,       Tempany Jopson, Sophie Leverett, Mai Smith and Beth Lawrence worked with youth engagement worker Rita Nunes to make sure that local people have a say when important decisions are made about their health and social care services.

IN TIME FOR SCHOLARSHIP LAUNCH