Codebreaking! – Super Saturdays

With the sound track to Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the background, Year 6 students from our partner primary schools were introduced to the challenge ahead.

In small teams and armed only with a map of the school and some cryptic clues, the students had to navigate the corridors and rooms answering mathematical problems they found along their way. The solutions to these problems gave them clues that would help them crack the pass code and unlock a treasure chest.

With great excitement and after an exhausting 2 hours the first team approached the treasure chest confident that they had cracked the code. They dialled in the numbers, click, the lock opened! Treasure? Prizes? In the bottom of the chest lay a tatty old envelope containing scraps of paper.

A second challenge!

The scraps of paper contained magic keywords and persuasive devices which had to be used to convince the ‘Keeper of the Prizes’, Mr Cable, that they were worthy of the prizes. Teams quickly set about constructing their persuasive letters using alliteration, triplets and some very abstract code words!

With only 15 minutes to spare, the first team secured the information they needed and rushed to where the prizes were hidden. However, it was not easy to convince the Keeper of the Prizes to part with the goodies. They were sent back to perfect and adapt their letter to be even more persuasive; other teams were catching up and the race was on!

A thoroughly enjoyable morning was had by all and we are certainly looking forward to meeting these code-breaking marvels in Year 7!