Y5 & Y6 Maths Enrichment Workshop: Joan Clarke and the Codebreakers (2.5 hours)

This session will explore code-breaking from ancient times including the Rosetta Stone, Caesar Cipher and transposition ciphers leading to the decrypting of the Enigma Machine code at Bletchley Park and in particular, Joan Clark, an outstanding mathematician and close friend and colleague of Alan Turing during WW2. The session will enable pupils to decrypt different codes and encrypt messages to their friends and assist them in understanding how encryption and decryption remain as important today in the digital age as they did in ancient times.

Pupils will be actively engaged througout the workshop in doing and discussing.

The pupils will know about a range of different encryption ciphers across historical periods.

The pupils will l encrypt and decrypt messages using a range of different codes.

The pupils will become aware of contributors to the history of encrypting and decrypting and that women contribute to mathematical thinking and achievement.

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