During the trip, we learnt all about the Enigma machines used to decode the messages from Germany, how it worked, what different parts of the machine did and how to understand the output of the machine. The museum had an Enigma Machine that cost around €30,000 (roughly £26,000) as well as the Bombe machine, which was impressive to see in action.

We also discussed the ethics of AI, tried to tell if we were talking to a human or a robot in a minigame and talked though a version of the well-known ‘trolley problem’.

Furthermore, we got to take a look at one of the first versions of the calculator, which was considerably larger and heavier than the light, compact calculators most of us have today.

One of the interesting things they had was an anticlockwise clock. The numbers were written in anticlockwise order and the hands moved anticlockwise too, which was both very confusing and fascinating to see.
One of the best parts was getting to code the Snake game on the old computers. It was interesting to see how differently the screen functioned and use the keyboard, which felt very different to the ones we use in the modern day. My highest score was 234 seconds, but that was without the chaser – another addition to the game that we could code using ‘BASIC’ language.

The trip to the National Museum of Computer Science was one of the best school trips I have had so far – by the end of it, I had learnt a lot of things that broadened my knowledge on computers and code-breaking machines of the past.

- Jocelyn in Year 10