FORGET the Da Vinci Code, a team of schoolgirls has been honoured for breaking baffling cryptic codes of their own.

The 15-year-olds from Clarendon House Grammar School at Ramsgate performed well in The Cipher Challenge, a nationwide codebreaking competition run by the University of Southampton over a four-month period during which teams from around the UK had to crack increasingly difficult puzzles each week.

Interim awards were made throughout to celebrate excellent team performance and the Clarendon House Codebreakers were invited to receive their award recently at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, the intelligence centre that was critical in deciphering vital information during World War II and that continues to protect the security of the UK against modern day threats.

The challenge was set around a series a communications between wartime submarines and the students worked on the internet to gain information which they then set about cracking.

Head of Maths Stephanie Swan said: "They really got hooked on the idea. They worked at home and during their break times.

"They were so enthusiastic and set about tackling some very tough mathematical puzzles and codes that were devised to challenge much older students who were taking A levels. They did extremely well."

After the formal presentation, the team of Charmaine Law, Natalie Truman, Jennifer Ogilvy-White, Rosi Hirst and Zoe Thomas had a chance to see how the world famous Enigma codebreaking machine worked and tour the museum.