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www.abingdon.org.uk 5 Abingdon News Cracking the Code Sixth former, James Hogge, celebrated winning the £1000 first prize, sponsored by GCHQ, in a national code-breaking competition. The National Cipher Challenge is run by Southampton University and this year over 8000 people took part from across the UK, some competing in teams and others, like James, as individuals. This was the third year that James has entered the competition and, having been runner-up twice, he was delighted to pick up the top prize this time. Space Rockets and Giant Pterosaurs The School played a huge part in the success of the ATOM Festival. Around 400 primary school children from the Ogden Trust Abingdon Primary Science Partnership attended the ATOM Primary Science Fair and nearly 550 members of the public visited the Family Science Fair at the Yang Science Centre. There was no missing the Abingdon ATOM Festival of Science and Technology 2018 even without the arrival of a space rocket and a life-sized, nine metre wingspan pterosaur cross-section at the Amey Theatre. The impact on inspiring interest in STEM subjects and raising awareness of our very special, local opportunities to work at the cutting edge of science and technology has been immeasurable. Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge 2018 25 lower sixth physicists have been grappling with this year’s Blott Matthews Engineering Challenge - E4E or Energy for Everything. The brief was to design the energy and transport infrastructure required for a city of 2 million people covering the Southampton and Portsmouth area. The difficulty was to ensure that it was carbon neutral and that only technology that would be available within the next 10 years could be used. The design was to be fully costed. R​eports ​were ​submitted at the end of February​and poster​s​detailing design highlights ​presented in March. The boys put in an outstanding performance.​​Charles Matthews wrote​, ​“​the boys produced some excellent work, presented themselves well and are a credit to the school”. Electri.City gained third prize of £300 and Wattever and Team Millet both received Merit Awards of £100 each. Exploring paint Lower sixth artists explored paint processes referencing the work of contemporary abstract painters, such as Day Bowman and Cy Twombly. Students developed layers of techniques onto their canvas and each layer was experimented with and annotated in sketchbooks to reference later in the course.