Curious Pupils Embrace British Science Week

Resourceful pupils at Highfield and Brookham School have this week demonstrated a love of all things scientific.

The children immersed themselves in an amazing world of discovery in honour of British Science Week, including being pitched into two ‘crime scenes’ and taking trips to two world-class London museums.

Even the school’s very youngest pupils, in the nursery, got involved in the appliance of science by learning about the importance of healthy eating on both their physical and mental wellbeing, loading up fruit skewers with fresh bananas, apples, pears and raisins.

For children in Reception to Year 5, a baffling case of Highfield and Brookham Head Suzannah Cryer’s missing chocolate saw the young learners turn detective, swapping maths books for magnifying glasses and French vocab for forensics in a bid to unearth clues and discover the truth behind the sweet-snatch mystery.

Year 8 were faced with a crime scene of their own, as poor old science lab stalwart Stan the skeleton was discovered prone on the floor of the biology lab, with a shattered mug, footprints, mysterious white powder and ‘blood’ spatter littered around the scene.

In both cases, the children had to find and assess the clues at the crime scene – such as chocolate bar wrappers, a lock of hair, fingerprints, muddy boots and fibres – and talk to potential witnesses in order to rule suspects in or out of their enquiries.

For the younger children this meant studying fingerprints and footprints and weighing up the findings against what they knew about the suspects, for the older children chromatography, flame tests and fingerprint analysis under microscopes came into play.

Away from the crime scene, where the children put key skills such as problem solving, teamwork and creativity to the test to get answers and make progress on their dastardly cases, Year 6 got the chance to engage with science in a fun and interactive way with a trip to the Science Museum while Year 7 gained a deeper understanding of the natural world, evolution and science with a fascinating trip to the Natural History Museum.

Mrs Cryer, whose chocolate stock was never replenished despite the culprit being apprehended, said that despite losing her sweet treat she was delighted to see the children so engaged and showing such initiative faced with a series of tough scientific challenges.

“We love British Science Week and our children get so much out of it, not least the chance to see how the key skills which underpin our curriculum can be used in such a practical and positive way,” she said.

“The children have learnt so much and they can apply that knowledge and those skills to overcome any challenges that life throws at them in the future.” And she added: “But it’s not just the children who have learnt a great deal this week, I’ve also learnt that it’s really important to keep my chocolate in a locked drawer!”