Aylesbury school proud to reach finals of cyber competition promoting teamwork and problem solving

An Aylesbury school has expressed its pride in reaching the regional finals of a national cyber security competition.

Aylesbury High School reached the South East finals in the CyberFirst Girls Competition.

Although, ultimately not advancing to the national finals, the Bucks school has once again promoted the competition designed to address underrepresentation in the tech industry.

On 4 February, Year 8 students from the Aylesbury school competed with nine other teams to complete tech-based dilemmas.

A school spokesman said: “Aylesbury High School is proud to be involved in this campaign and leading the way in the Buckinghamshire region.”

From September the team representing the high school has been learning about cyber security concepts and the IT skills people need to stay safe when using devices.

Amber, one of the students taking part said: “I chose to get involved in the CyberFirst competition because I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn new skills and be involved in a team to work together to solve problems.”

To reach the regional finals held in Fareham, the school had to qualify by completing an online competition.

Ire, also from Year 8, added: “I found networking the most interesting area of CyberFirst. At first, it wasn’t what I would instantly choose, but I found it really interesting, as well as working with binary, hexadecimal etc. I think that if you like to work with numbers, then you will enjoy it as well.”

This project is supported by the Government, Oliver Dowden said: “We are committed to developing the next generation of cyber leaders who can ensure the UK remains at the cutting edge of this important sector, and continuing to tackle female under-representation is vital to uncovering this talent.”

Recent data shows that just 22% of people working in the cyber industry are female.

Chris Ensor from the National Cyber Security Centre said: “The UK’s cyber industry is growing rapidly, but it needs better female representation – that’s why we're committed to uncovering cyber talent and improving opportunities.”