LAET Trip to Bletchley Park
Part of this week’s Good New round up is written by Ovidu, Muneeb and Abdullahi in year 10 – they wanted to reflect on their trip to Bletchley Park last week:
“We had the extreme pleasure of experiencing an exciting trip to Bletchley Park today. We were grateful for the excellent opportunity provided to us by LAET to learn about important wartime technologies, particularly the German Enigma machine. We discovered how codebreakers were able to unravel the complex encryption system through determination, intelligence, and innovation. With the mastery of Alan Turing, along with the earlier work of three Polish mathematicians, they developed methods to break the Enigma codes. Their heroic efforts at Bletchley Park are estimated to have shortened the war by around two years, saving millions of lives and equipment.
We were granted the privilege of having a sneak preview into the secrecy of the organisation. This advanced secrecy required workers at Bletchley Park who were required to sign an agreement which ensured that whatever happened at Bletchley Park, stayed at Bletchley Park, with consequences of failing to do so looking as serious as treason with penalties up to execution. We analysed the workers lives and how the founder of the estate, MI6 Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair, having to spend his own money to set it up (£6000 = £500,000 in modern day, adjusted to inflation over the years), which the government was never required to “pay back” due to the economic crisis caused by the war.
However, Alan Turing and his friends weren’t the only people who had to deal with challenges, as us students were also granted an opportunity to endure challenges of our own. We were given 8 ‘Secret’ challenges that we have had to complete over the span of our day. Duke’s Aldridge, who were accompanied by students from schools: Gladesmore, Park View and Mulberry. However, while all schools did display their own respective elements of determination and effort, we at Duke’s under Mrs Bailey’s supervision were the only school to complete all 8 challenges!!! Yes, her Mantra of “Only My Best Is Good Enough” spurred us on.
We would like to say, MASSIVE thanks to Ms. Stanger; Ms. Estaban-Ruiz and Mr. Mete (LAET staff and Chrysalis East) for also organising and funding this event for us. Mr Hines, for his efforts in organising the trip; Ms Henry for this opportunity (and her raffle which determined our fates on who attended or not); Amir ex-student and coach driver and Mrs Bailey for her motherly support on the day.
In other news…..
This week also saw one of the final stages of the Linklaters Employability programme with the group travelling to Linklaters for CV writing workshops and mock interviews. All students had a productive time on this trip and were totally engaged in this important work.
