Programming, cryptography and innovation were on the agenda as Year 8 students took part in Barclays’ IT Girls Allowed Programme.

Coinciding with Ada Lovelace Day, students visited The Barclays Technology Campus in Knutsford, Cheshire for a full day of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related activities.

Barclays’ IT Girls Allowed programme aims to inspire young people with stories about women in technology, such as Ada Lovelace and the female operators at Bletchley Park during World War Two. The project was created to directly address the lack of women who aspire to have a career in technology.

During the one-day events, Barclays’ volunteers share their professional expertise and skills with students to encourage future female talent to join the profession and give them first hand insights into technology careers in a fun and engaging way.

The full day event aims to get girls interested in technology and they complete plugged and unplugged activities including; cryptography, programming and innovation.

The first session, named ‘Designing the Future’ saw ASFA students come up with brilliant ideas including a holographic teacher designed to help with homework. In the afternoon session, the girls learned about cryptography by decoding jokes using different ciphers.

The inspiring day ended with a session about programming robots. Starting off with a square motion, the Year 8 girls then had to work out how to get the robot to make more complicated shapes.