Latest news…

1. Pilot classes
2. Scientists
3. Lesson plans latest

Pilot classes

I haven’t posted on here for a while, not because nothing’s been happening, but because I’ve been so busy. The teacher packs are nearly out of the way now though. And, it’s been extremely difficult, but we’ve picked the classes to take part in the pilot event.

We were very over-subscribed for year 9 and GCSE classes, with about four classes wanting to take part for every space we had. We’ve tried to include a representative range of abilities, types of school and exam boards, but had to say no to a lot of classes, which was a real shame. Sorry again everyone!

The original plan was 20 post-16 classes and 20 GCSE level classes in the pilot, but we had a lot more interest from pre-16 teachers, especially for year 9s post SATs (we’ve obviously spotted a gap in the market there). So we’ve changed our plan a bit. We’ve now got 10 post-16 classes taking part and 35 pre-16 classes (they will be in two groups, so we don’t exhaust one set of scientists).

Scientists

The next challenge is to find 15 fantastic scientists who want to talk to all these students. I’ll be writing out to the scientists who’ve already contacted me very shortly asking for more info, and then we’ll have to make some tough decisions about scientists too. I don’t like that bit. We’re all about inclusivity ‘n’ that here, not telling people to f off…

Lesson plans latest

We’ve now got a fairly complete version of the lesson plans, and accompanying materials. Thanks to Becky for all her work, Ian for all his input, and the many teachers who kindly emailed me with comments and suggestions.

They still need to be designed and made beautiful, which our designer will be doing next week, but in the main I think they’re in good shape. If anyone has any comments – improvements, changes, problems, or (especially) extravagant compliments about how great they are, then please comment here or email me.