Over the Easter and half term holidays five Year 8 girls went on a free, four-day long residential Cyber Security course in Canterbury and Cheltenham. These girls were part of a large group that participated in the 2019 CyberFirst Girls Competition and were lucky enough to receive an invite to these residential courses.
CyberFirst Defenders provides a valuable introduction to the tools, knowledge and skills required to build and protect small networks and personal devices. Here’s what they had to say about their time on the course:
Gwen Sargent (8Burrows) really enjoyed taking part in the course. “Over the four days I learnt a lot about cyber security and made friends with girls from different parts of the country.”
Katie Mason (8Sherborne) took part in the course at Canterbury – “We learned a lot and all of the people that took part and ran it were really nice and made us all feel welcome, as well as teaching us the things we went there to learn.”
Laura Nash (8Ridgeway) said, “I really enjoyed this truly unique experience to learn so much new information about cyber safety in such a relatable and engaging way. Everybody, from the people in charge of the course and our chaperones to the other students there, made us feel really welcomed. We will take so much away from this opportunity and I would strongly urge anyone who is even considering going into a job linked to cyber security (which if you go on the course you learn is most jobs) to go and take the brilliant experience for your own.”
Emily Climpson (8Story) felt it was a ‘once in a lifetime experience’. “I would strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn anything else in more depth about cyber first or who want to go into a job that includes cyber first or uses cyber first. All the people in charge to all the students who were on the course were all welcoming to everyone and explained anything what you didn't understand. We will take lots of information away from this course. We then told everyone how to be safe online and what to do if you get hacked.”
Mrs Helen Williams, Teacher of Computer Science