Back to school: Parents at The Compton School join their children in hands-on science workshops

The workshops, which run termly with different themes, have been introduced to help engage parents in their child’s science education and allow them to experience the practical science curriculum. The most recent workshop theme was ‘The Science of Magic’ where families had the opportunity to create their own expanding ‘spiders’ eggs’ with ‘vampire blood.’

Previous themes have included ‘Fizz, Pop, Bang’, with the demonstrations featured being noisy and involving fire. Participants have even had the thrilling opportunity to carry out dissection of a heart during the workshops, giving the students an insight into medical science as a potential career path.

The workshops are supported by a STEM Learning Ambassador from STEM Learning who help with carrying the demonstrations. The workshops are popular events with 10-15 families attending each time and are open to students from Year 7 to Year 9.

The sessions allow for parents and their children to have a shared learning experience, helping to foster a lifelong love and interest in STEM and potentially inspiring the next generation of scientists.

The feedback from the workshops have been incredibly positive, with staff, parents and students alike finding the workshops to be engaging, fun and interesting. Parents have also commented on how they enjoyed being in a classroom again; others shared that they did not have this type of experience at school.

Parent Carlos Silva, said: “It was an amazing experience to spend this time with my son in the school and learn alongside him.

Year 7 student, Bernerdo Lobo Facnaha, said: “This was really fun and worth going to! Lots of cool chemical and physical reactions!”

An excited parent said: “This is our third science workshop at The Compton School, and we love it! The experiments are always exciting and well-explained by the staff.”

Parent, Oxana Sirbu, said: “Magic does exist!” “We were expecting to see some nice magic tricks and we definitely weren’t disappointed.”

Heads of School, Louise Ismail and Andrew Hammond, said: "We are so proud that this initiative, led by our Science Department, is allowing parents and children to learn together and explore science side by side, discovering the wonders of the world as one.”