Secret Codes, Hidden Clues, and a School Full of Spies

Something suspicious was happening at Junior School Vlaskamp. 

Year 6 learners were roaming the corridors in disguise. Secret codes were being cracked. Fingerprints were under investigation. Clues had been hidden around the school. 

And then there was the laser maze. 

Welcome to Spy Day. 

First mission: think like a spy 

For one day, Year 6 swapped an ordinary school day for a series of missions designed to test some essential spy skills. 

There were fingerprints to examine and code wheels to decipher. In Computing, learners explored binary coding, while elsewhere they put their map-reading skills to the test, following clues hidden around the school. 

Even Dutch became part of their spy training, because you never know where your next mission might take you. 

And, of course, every aspiring secret agent had been waiting for the challenge: navigating the laser maze. 

Could they make it through without touching a laser? 

Some missions required careful observation. Others called for problem-solving, teamwork or a little creativity. All of them gave learners the opportunity to get involved, experiment and discover. 

“As a spy, I loved trying to find spy gadgets hidden around the school using a map. The laser maze was really, really fun: I did it three times and loved it.” 

— Year 6 learner, who has asked to remain anonymous while completing a highly classified mission. 

Learning by stepping into the story 

Spy Day is one of our Impact Days, created to immerse learners in a topic rather than simply introduce it from the classroom. 

This time, the experience launches a new English writing unit centred around the imaginative world of spy schools. 

But before asking learners to imagine that world on paper, we let them step inside it. 

The result? 

They now know what it feels like to decode a message, search for clues, navigate a mission and tackle the unexpected. Those experiences become something they can draw on later — not only for their writing but also for their ideas, conversations, and creativity. 

As one of our undercover agents put it: 

“After my spy training, I think I’d be an amazing spy. I learnt loads of different types of codes; test me!” 

— Anonymous Year 6 spy 

It is learning that starts with “What if…?” and gives learners the freedom to find out. 

Not your average day at school 

Perhaps that’s the best thing about Spy Day. 

Behind the costumes, secret missions, and a considerable amount of fun, learners were using skills from across the curriculum without those subjects feeling separate from one another. 

Computing became code-breaking. Map reading became a mission. Dutch became a spy skill. English became a world they could actually experience. 

And for a few hours, the campus became somewhere completely different. 

By the end of the day, some learners had just one complaint: 

Why can’t every day be Spy Day? 

We’re afraid that information is classified. 

See more highlights from Spy Day on Flickr:

Flickr album: JSV, Spy Day, 2026 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

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