PARK TEACHER NOTES TOP SECRET SELF GUIDED KEY STAGE 3

HUT 11A

HUT 11

THE MANSION

HUT 3

HUT 1 HUT 6

HUT 8

TELEPRINTER HALL

BLOCK A

BLOCK B

ROOMS 1-4

BLOCK C

1 TEACHER NOTES SELF GUIDED KEY STAGE 3

PLAN FOR THE DAY BLOCK B LOWER GALLERY

If you are taking part in an educational visit through the Learning Department, you will be sent an itinerary for your • Can you find the differences between the Enigma visit which will include these components: machines on display?

- Guided tour of approximately 45 minutes, which will Use the Enigma interactive on the wall. take you around the outside of the buildings. Enigma machines were used by the Nazis to encipher their - Workshop session for 1 hour (please refer to the messages. The Enigma machine did not send the mes- learning section of the website for more information and sage, the message was sent using Morse Code over radio session choices). and this was secretly listened to at Wireless Interception Stations ( Y stations) . The messages were written down, - Lunch break for 30 minutes with provision for eating in letters, then taken by Dispatch Rider using a motorbike/ packed lunches in a reserved indoor space. bicycle or sent via teleprinter to .

- Self guided time for up to an hour (this could be split Take a look at the information about Alan Turing. across different slots). Discuss the pardon he received after his death.

During your self-guided time, you will be encouraged to Hut 11A divide into smaller groups to explore inside the buildings. The machine was designed by Alan Turing Please stay with your student groups at all times for and to assist with and speed up the safeguarding and security. codebreaking process.

*Please note that sessions and tours are scheduled A set of three vertical drums on the Bombe machine repre- throughout the day and your itinerary may follow a sents three rotors in one Enigma machine. different running order. The codebreakers used clues and common phrases (cribs) We encourage you to use the self guides with the students to guess some of the message content. They could then to enrich their engagement with the exhibitions. The use this information to design a menu for the Bombe, Codebreaker cards include ten places for the students allowing it to check possible Enigma settings for that day. to find and encourage them to participate in the activities suggested. The following information links with and The codebreakers would try the settings given by the supplements the questions on the codebreaker cards. Bombe to break the code. If this didn’t work, they would run the Bombe again. The Codebreaker cards include objects and places to find around the Park, some questions to think about and space Over 200 Bombe machines were built but most were for pupils to investigate objects for themselves. destroyed after the war. The Bombe is not a computer: it carries out systematic searches rather than numerical calculations.

2 Hut 6 - Teleprinter Room: At the beginning of the War Enter this Hut and find yourself in 28th February 1941. sent their reports directly to MI6 and a small group of people who knew about the Bletchley Park secret. These • What would it be like to work here? messages were enciphered using a Typex machine and then sent by teleprinter. - Registration Room : the intercepted messages from the Y-stations were sorted. Typex machines were the British wheel-based electromechanical cipher machines, a variant of the - Machine Room: ciphers were broken using pencil and German commercial Enigma machine. They were paper. developed in the UK in 1934. Once German messages were broken with the help of the Bombe machines, the - Interception control room: staff liaised with Y-stations intercepted messages were decrypted using adapted to ensure all radio stations were covered. Typex machines.

- Netz and Crib rooms: different methods for breaking codes are described. It is important you know how to break codes. Go into Hut 8 with your group. Work as a team to find three different - Decoding room: once Enigma settings had been broken ways to break the codes. in the Machine Room the intercepted messages were typed into Typex machines (British cipher machines), Read the quotes on the walls, work on the interactives and adapted to work like Enigma machines. The decrypts were find out about different approaches to codebreaking. then pushed through a chute with a broom into Hut 3. Pupils can watch the following film in Hut 8 about the Army and Air Force codes were worked on in Hut 6. Petard Pinch: goo.gl/qkFHyW Hut 6 and Hut 3 explain the Codebreaking process as it was in 1941. The students can follow the process from Visit Alan Turing’s office and point out his cup attached to room to room, reading the text and listening to the sounds, the radiator! Alan Turing was the Head of Hut 8 until 1942. to the end of Hut 6. In Hut 3, walk straight down to the end He was very keen to break Naval codes. and continue from the back of the Hut towards the door. He was rather eccentric and liked to ensure his cup was Hut 3 only used by him! - The Watch: four watch keepers who were experts in German filled in the gaps in the messages that had MANSION come through from Hut 6. • What are your first impressions of the Mansion?

- Duty Officers’ Room: the messages were prioritised. Visit the Off Duty exhibition.

- Advisors’ Room: Hut 3 reports were checked for accuracy • Which activity will you take part in during your rare time in military and technical details. off from codebreaking? Stand in Commander Denniston’s office. - Intelligence Officers’ Room:officers worked on cover stories to conceal the fact that Enigma was being broken. • How would it feel to sign the Official Secrets Act?

- Administration and Typing Room: reports were typed up *Cards can be stamped on the desk in the Library. and sent to MI6. They were often sent by a (fictitious) spy called Boniface.

3 BLOCK C - SECRECY AND SECURITY EXHIBITION CURRICULUM LINKS:

Look into the future… MATHEMATICS • Why is this exhibition at Bletchley Park? - Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to Find the BERLIN transcript. How could this link to a variety of routine and non routine problems with passwords we use today? increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering Encourage students to use the interactives and discuss in seeking solutions their thoughts as to why the exhibition links to Bletchley Park. - Develop their mathematical knowledge, in part through solving problems and evaluating the outcomes, including Block C - Secrets Revealed multi-step problems This exhibition explains the impact of the work at Bletchley Park. A quote from Winston Churchill can be COMPUTING: found near the entrance describing the Codebreakers - Understand a range of ways to use technology safely, and their success in keeping their work secret: ‘The geese respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting that laid the golden eggs and never cackled’. Later in the their online identity and privacy; recognise inappropriate exhibition another indication of Churchill’s support can content, contact and conduct, and know how to report be seen: the ‘Action This Day’ memo he wrote after he concerns. received a letter from Codebreakers explaining that their work was hindered by lack of resources. HISTORY: - Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including Expertise in these languages was particularly in demand at how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, Bletchley Park: Japanese, German and Italian. and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed A dispatch rider’s motorbike can be seen in the second part of the exhibition. - Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day (the Second World War and the war- time leadership of Winston Churchill)

- Social, cultural and technological change in post-war British society

- Britain’s place in the world since 1945

- A local history study

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