We have finished Term 2, except for finalisation of the marks for the term, which has to be completed by next Wednesday morning.

Most of my time in the classroom has been spent preparing to teach Calculus next term, including preparing an Easter holiday revision pack for the 31 calculus students, who take their big public examination three weeks after term starts.

The top two years of the school spent a week doing African Field Study trips all around the continent. Since I teach mixed-year classes (sorted according to ability, not age) I had a week of depleted classes. So I set them a cryptography puzzle. They were all recruited as trainee secret agents, and had to decode this message:

N = 12121203120006210918270603044444411440022773366992211

E = 391006552258264868331309678722710012903893647125871

5889939436600781171762019103782112091594319412427861          

5203834990958843813259810854795721172231289813973983          

5203834990958843813259810854795721172231289813973983          

471443146209389345195723690765197523186623761930772          

8828487850930222633398308061517890529291148739029611          

69398698194275782371700881652466678158561061167927          

69398698194275782371700881652466678158561061167927          

820121495330118945946997220903298947383819686590225          

648372191833645443713757610898650826124088122334794          

4264507233040916210900062360653304353074911278176228          

2778235794001625207578512594532913930140486822898667          

807864061717983420841623246825689971385487339116090          

2778235794001625207578512594532913930140486822898667          

7684167287335047750083207448981962060839359935855636          

69398698194275782371700881652466678158561061167927

4113062648031559618999786337195417996054017566538970          

3012995082858680413047127473355258579410618142212737          

471443146209389345195723690765197523186623761930772          

12111276384158668856706012330701263944934300695381189          

2056505832447593737697544622298025994841811636529320          

I taught them about cryptography methods, and eventually they all successfully decoded the message, which led to a website with the following:

Lesley and I are now waiting excitedly for our two older children to arrive – they are visiting us for a week over Easter….