CyberFirst Girls Competition 2022 - 23

The 2023 CyberFirst Girls Competition is run by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ. The competition aims to inspire girls aged 12 and 13 (Year 8) to pursue their interests in technology and pursue a career in cyber security, where women make up just 22% of the workforce.

Last term, we were invited by Mrs Parker to sign up for this competition. We had plenty of fun preparing for the qualifying round by practising challenging problems which developed our interest in this competition. This year’s contest was entered by over 8,700 girls from across the four nations of the UK, including three Year 8 students from St Clement Danes School Ishwari Pandya, Prisha Yadav and Clara Stroh. There were three other teams from our school who were competing with the remaining schools regionally. We successfully managed, for the first time in St Clement Danes history, to reach the regional finals which were held at BT's innovation labs in Adastral Park, Ipswich, Suffolk.

In the competition, there were 5 sections. Logic & Coding, Cyber-Security, Cryptography, Networking and Speciality, all of these were extremely enjoyable. There were several resources and websites that helped us learn different techniques during Thursday lunchtime club.

On the 4^th of February, our team represented the school in the East of England Final. On the day Ishwari and Prisha were competing with other schools of 3-4 team members. We managed to reach 5^th and 6^th position till half time but later came in 10th! Overall, We enjoyed the experience of competing and representing our school in the East of England Finals.

After the competition ended, we were provided with an opportunity to attend a technical showcase by BT. We enjoyed watching several displays like Smart Cameras, Security Drones, 3D Printers, Sensory Touch and Cool Advertisements. My favourite part was the Data Analysis with a 3D Printed version of London where you could scan it and access the information stored in the database. For example, the cars driving in the particular area and the drivers’ licence for the driver.

Although we did not win the regional final our experience at the cyber security competition was an inspiration and opened up the idea of pursuing a career within the industry in the future.

Thank you to Mrs Parker for providing us with such a valuable opportunity and for giving us the opportunity to represent St Clement Danes School.