TEENAGE cyber sleuths from two schools in Worcestershire have been praised for their security skills after impressing judges with their code-cracking abilities at a UK final of a GCHQ competition.

Pupils from Hanley Castle High School and Pershore High School travelled to the historic Lancaster House in the heart of Westminster to pit their technological wits against girls from eight other schools from across the country at a national final earlier this week.

By reaching the final, both Worcestershire teams finished in the top 0.5 per cent of entrants, and took part in a full-day of digital investigation to unravel a mystery that had seen the fictional Paddock Hill School website hacked.

The CyberFirst Girls competition was organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, and saw more than 8,000 young women aged 13-15 from across the UK enter the online heats in teams of three or four.

It was created to raise more awareness of careers in cyber security amongst girls, because only 10 per cent of the global workforce is female.

Hannah Revett, Alex Vickers, Libby Nicklin and Emily Manton, all aged 15, represented Hanley Castle High School under the team name Hanley One.

The Hanley Castle High School team were even treated to a photoshoot with an Aston Martin before the competition by HR Owen.

Finalist Emily Manton said: "This has been an amazing and enjoyable experience. We first found out about it from our teacher Mrs Hawkins and thought it sounded fun.

“There was a really nice atmosphere in the final – it didn’t feel like an exam, which was good.

“The variety of difficulties gave us smaller goals to aim for, which motivated us even when it was difficult. We would definitely all do it again.”

Alice Forson, aged 15, Milly Routledge, Lucy Inett, both aged 14, and Ella Ramage represented Pershore High School under the team name ATeam.

Lucy Inett said: “The thing we enjoyed most about the competition was the introduction to a new world and knowledge level, especially how much we all learnt.

“We really enjoyed working as a girls team. The teamwork and friendship level really helped us with the competition as a whole.

“The competition has really opened our eyes to a whole new career choice. We went into this competition hardly knowing anything and from the challenges we have come away knowing so much more than we did before.”

The final transformed the historic Lancaster House, just yards from Buckingham Palace, into a live-action cyber centre to test the girls’ security skills through a series of challenging scenarios on Monday, March 27.

The Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School were the eventual winners.

Alison Whitney, the deputy director for digital services at the NCSC, said: “The girls from Worcestershire were all very worthy finalists – the standard of work was incredibly high and we were very impressed with their work."