At St Margaret's our children love science and we love providing as them with a variety of opportunities including investigating; using the outdoors environment; meeting real scientists and engineers; using scientific equipment; using their imagination and gaining knowledge. We are very proud to have been awarded the Round 10 Primary Science Quality Mark Gold level for 2016.

We have also been awarded Gold for the Space Education Quality Mark.  The feedback we received was extremely positive 'St Margaret’s amazing portfolio shows what wonderful work has been done across the entire curriculum throughout every age group with children using Space Science as a theme for their maths lessons, science lessons as well as inspiring their work in English, Art and PE.'

Chemlabs Show

On Tuesday 27th February, the whole school were entranced by Tim Harrison as he delivered his award winning science show on 'Gases in the air' . There were fire balls, bangs, and gasps of delight from the children and staff!  Tim has won 'Chemistry Teacher of the Year', is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The children were challenged to make predictions, revised scientific vocabulary and really consolidated their understanding of solids, liquids and gases. 

Family Science Event

This Tuesday, we were really lucky to be visited by archaeologist and BBC TV and radio presenter, Julian Richards. Families from eight schools across the county were completely absorbed as they heard all about his life as an archaeologist; judging from the fantastic questions at the end it definitely inspired our young scientists and historians. He even stayed to chat and sign books 😊.

Visitor from Warwick University

Year 4 were wowed by Prof Nick Barker (Warwick University) who showed them solids, liquids and gases in a really spectacular fashion!

Mad Science Assembly

Georgia from Mad Science astounded the children in a super exciting assembly! They learnt about flammables and gasped as the flash paper disappeared before their eyes! Smoke rings were produced from an air cannon and wind bags were used to demonstrate lung capacity. Everyone was amazed by the finale of icing sugar being ignited to create dragon breath!

Children from Years 5 and 6 tested their science ability and determination by designing and making a marble run. The winners from Year 6 were entered into the national CLEAPSS competition. The winners from Year 5 were taken on a trip to the ThinkTank museum in Birmingham alongside children from other Ogden Trust Partnership schools.

Children in Year 6 have been taking part in a national BBC Terrific Scientific investigation. A great start to their unit on Evolution and Inheritance: they were measuring each others foot flexibilty and comparing it to the terrains they walked on. They were fascinated to compare their results with other schools around the country and rose to the challenge of  taking part in 'real' science!                     

Imagineering Club

Year 6 Imagineering Club have been working in teams to try and build the strongest bridge. All of the bridges have now been tested to destruction by adding weights ... can you guess which team won?

We have been investigating...

Year 6 visited the copse to identify trees using a key and also had an opportunity to discover what was in our pond with a pond dipping session. We are going to be investigating what changes happen in our environment over time.

On the 9/3/16 we held our second Family Learning evening. Over 80 people were there including families from our neighbouring school, St Joseph's Catholic Primary. We enjoyed a fascinating talk from Prof. Andrew Levan from Warwick University about SUPERVOVAE.

Year 4 pupils told us what they had learnt:

"When you put 1 proton and 1 neutron and 1 electron together you form Hydrogen. To make Helium, you need 2 protons, 2 neutrons and 2 electrons."

"Two stars colliding make a blackhole!"

"We found out that approximately 701 billon supernovae have happened."

Warwick University Visitors

At the end of January, Year 4 pupils were lucky to have Marianne Costa and Nick Barker from Warwick University come and give a fantastic talk about solids, liquids and gases. This linked in brilliantly with their learning about states of matter. Arjun said that the 'Chemiluminescence' was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen in his life! Other highlights included observing the effects of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. Did you know that oxygen can reignite a flame? Even Mrs Williams-Cook was impressed by the explosive burning of alcohol fumes which left just a few drops of water as a waste product. Could a St Margaret's pupil be inspired to be a scientist of the future? Watch this space!

Natural World Experience

Year 4 got a very close encounter with lots of vertebrates and invertebrates when 'Natural World Experience' came into school.

Crash Testing - Family Learning Evening

On Wednesday 4th November, we held our first Family learning evening. Over 65 children and parents attended a fascinating presentation about crash testing by Tim Lewis CEng MIMechE principal engineer at JLR.

Arshnoor, a year 4 student who attended, wrote a super account of the evening, this is part of it:

'When I went to the crash testing dummies presentation it was very interesting. We saw a real crash test dummy. Charlie was its name. That was chosen because it worked for a boy or a girl! He or she represented a 6 year old for the crash tests...There was a small experiment with bin bags and eggs...When the volunteer dropped an egg on an empty bin bag, it broke...When an egg was dropped on a bin bag full of air it broke again...Lastly the bag was full of air but had holes so it could SQUISH and the egg was as good as new! Air bags aren't about the bang but the squish.'