Senior Mathematicians’ achievement

Posted: 29th January 2021

University of Southampton cipher challenge.

Mrs Bennet, Head of Mathematics, reports on how the mathematicians at St Augustine’s Priory are meeting the challenges of lockdown and triumphing in a way that shows how amazing they are!

‘Every year the University of Southampton runs a cipher challenge with a series of increasingly difficult messages to decrypt under timed conditions.  This year’s competition has just finished.

Two teams from St Augustine’s Priory participated this year who devoted many, many hours of their spare time to investigating the Vigenere cipher,  the ADFGVX cipher and, finally, a fiendishly difficult Wheatstone Clock cipher.

This competition attracted over 3,600 competitors and there were just 262 correct submissions for cipher 6 (there are 7 in total). Our Lower IV cipherists managed to finish puzzle 6 and our Lower V cipherists correctly solved number 7 and were placed an incredible 9th in the competition overall.

Both of these accomplishments are amazing and this is definitely the school’s finest performance so far – we are already excited about next year’s competition!

Many congratulations to Riko Nakagawa in Lower IV and Sophie Fung in Lower V for their achievements.

Coming 9th in this competition out of so many entrants is an incredible result.  Well done, our wonderful mathematicians!’

Categories: Senior Whole School
Strengthening Our Community: The Return of Boys to our Preps and Pre-Preps

We are excited to share that, from September 2026, boys will begin moving up from our Nursery into Reception, marking the gradual reintroduction of boys into our Prep and Pre-Prep School.

This step reflects growing interest from families who value our strong holistic ethos and unique grounds and setting and would like their sons and daughters to share their educational journey together.

At St Augustine’s, our strong sense of community, academic excellence, and deep care for each individual child remain at the heart of everything we do. This is a natural evolution of our school rather than a change to who we are, building on our strengths and allowing us to offer the same joyful, inspiring education to even more children.