With the upcoming Alan Turing centenary year in 2012 there has been a renewed interest in the story of the British Second World War code-breakers, with major documentaries appearing recently on BBC and Channel 4. It is perhaps for this reason that so many Year 10 students signed up for the Maths department outing to Bletchley Park, and the 73 students who braved the two-hour journey around the M25 were rewarded with an informative and fun programme of code-breaking activities and lectures.

Our knowledgeable guides talked us through the history of the site, and there was something extremely atmospheric about walking through the ramshackle huts and portacabins where so much of the important work was done. The guides stressed the huge contribution made by both professional Mathematicians and the large number of machine operators, telephonists and dispatch riders mostly drawn from the Wrens. Read the full report.