GCHQ National Language Competition crowns its 2023 winners
After a week of fierce competition, the winners have been crowned
After an outstanding effort from all teams and schools over the course of the competition week, we are delighted to announce that the winners of GCHQ’s National Language Competition 2023 are Team Cute Brainy Shark (Toby, Aidan, Jonty and Kelson) from Swavesey Village College in Cambridge.
Many congratulations to the winning team!
There was fierce competition all week with over 3000 teams from schools across the UK putting their language skills to the test and battling it out for the top spot on the leaderboard. It was a closely fought race right up to the very end with teams pulling out all the stops to break those codes and solve the fiendish language puzzles! The winners will shortly be invited to GCHQ’s Headquarters in Cheltenham to collect their National Language Competition 2023 trophy.
In addition, we would like to announce regional prizes to the below teams who scored top of their region.
| Region | Winners | School |
| England - East Midlands | Team Thankful Fair Bobcat (Ibrahim, Lukas, Matas, Matthew) | The Boston Grammar School, Lincolnshire |
| England - East of England | Team Nice Laughing Moorhen (Armelle, Mayumee, Pearl, Vidushi) | Swavesey Village College, Cambridgeshire |
| England - Greater London | Team Honest Energetic Coral (Alyssa, Jane, Jemima, Yuna) | St Pauls Girls' School, London |
| England - North East | Team Bright Stormy Ibis (Archit, Akhil, Jinfan, Sarmed) | Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
| England - North West & Isle of Man | Team Pleasant Colourful Guppy (Archie, Ernie, Ethan and Ewan) | Poynton High School, Stockport |
| England - South West, Guernsey & Jersey | Team Faithful Stormy Sheep (Emily, Joh, Justin, Rose) | Colyton Grammar School, Devon |
| England - South East | Team Determined Young Jay (Abarna, Daria, Gishel, Ruthu) | The Tiffin Girls' School, Surrey |
| England - West Midlands | Team Cute Blushing Sheep (Bing, Emily, Maggie, Ria) | King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham |
| England - Yorkshire & The Humber | Team Delightful Beautiful Wallaby (Bhoomi, Evelyn, Poppy, Satchi) | Heckmondwike Grammar School, West Yorkshire |
| Northern Ireland | Team Clever Eager Wolf (Dylan, Harvey, Isaac, Jude) | Cambridge House Grammar School, Antrim |
| Scotland | Team Outstanding Pretty Anteater | St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh |
| Wales | Team Frantic Pleasant Vulture (Annis, Caitlin, Maelie, Sophie) | St Joseph's RC High School, Newport |
Congratulations to the regional winners, who will all be receiving a special GCHQ NLC 2023 Regional Winners' coin!
Thank you very much to all the teams and schools who took part. We hope you enjoyed competition week as much as we did, and hope this has inspired you to keep learning languages and to even think about trying some new ones!
Keep a look out for the NLC 2024! Email [email protected] to join our mailing list.
