Prep Schools battle to Crack the Code in online challenge to mark Alan Turing’s birthday

Invited teams from 11 Prep Schools battled it out in a series of online cryptic challenges in the Sherborne Schools’ second Virtual Cracking the Code Competition, held in the last week of term.

After a welcome from Headmaster of Sherborne, Dr Dominic Luckett, and Headmistress of Sherborne Girls, Dr Ruth Sullivan, the teams headed straight into their first challenges, a series of cryptic maths conundrums, led by Head of Mathematics at Sherborne Girls, Dr Andrew Moore. This was followed swiftly by linguistic puzzles set by Head of Modern Languages at Sherborne, Mrs Judy Thurman. In both challenges, teamwork was essential in order to come up with the correct answers in the fastest time.

Congratulations to the winning teams from Pembridge Hall School and Prospect House School, and well done to everyone who took part. It was an absolute pleasure to watch teams competing and we were most impressed with the standard of all schools who took part. Thank you to; Cottesmore Prep, Durlston Court School, Edge Grove, Pembridge Hall School, Prospect House School, Sarum Hall School, Thomas’s Kensington, Twyford School, Vinehall School, West Hill Park and Windlesham House School.

The event not only coincided with OS Alan Turing’s birthday on 23 June, but also the launch of the new £50 note by the Bank of England. On the 26 June, the School also unveiled a bronze bust of Alan Turing in the School grounds by Alan’s nephew and OS Sir Dermot Turing.

Cracking the Code is part of Sherborne School’s Prep School Programme, a year-round programme of events run by the School including talks, challenges, sports tournaments and music festivals.

To keep up to date with news on Sherborne School's Prep School Programme, please visit our Twitter page here.