Year 9 learn about codes and ciphers

This morning (Monday 8th July), our Maths department welcomed Dr R Paget from the University of Kent to deliver a session on codes and ciphers to Year 9 students with an understanding of various encryption methods, including Substitution, Shift, and Caesar ciphers.

The Caesar cipher is a specific type of shift cipher that uses a fixed shift of three places. It is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence.

Both ciphers are examples of mono alphabetic substitution, meaning they replace one letter of the alphabet with another. These ciphers are simple yet fundamental concepts in the field of cryptography, illustrating the basics of encrypting and decrypting messages.

Students then had to use these methods to decode a message in order to unlock a briefcase full of sweets.