STUDENTS from Sir John Thursby Community College visited the National Museum of Computing as part of their studies.

The youngsters, studying GCSE in Computing Science, went to Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, where they saw the world’s oldest computer – called the Witch – which had the basic functions of a calculation but took up most of the space in the room.

Students also saw the world’s first electronic computer, The Colossus, which had the sole purpose of cracking messages between Hitler and his generals during the Second World War.

They also created their own programme on some of the BBC’s first computers.

One student said: “I didn’t know computers were used to help break Hitler’s messages.”

Another said: “The code breaking and programming was fun. It’s definitely something I want to do in the future.”

The museum shows how far computing has come in the past 50 years. On display are some of the earliest Apple and Amstrad machines.