Well, just over a week later and we already have a new website and 77 followers on our @OotW_UK Twitter site. Well done Mrs Pheasey for generating so much interest on Twitter – some of our followers seem quite distinguished too! We even had a tweet from Star Wars UK! Still no response from Brian Cox though – obviously a different strategy is required. Thanks must also go to our Rolls-Royce mentor, Henry, who has helped me with setting up the website.

Talking of Rolls-Royce, this week at school we have been working hard at collecting footage for our five minute video, which I am due to take to Derby on 9^th November. Friday was an INSET day and the turn of the team members to say their piece in front of the camera. Quite a daunting task, despite the fact that we perform in front of an audience every day.

After we had blown up our script to a sufficient font size (it’s amazing how bad some of our eyesight seems to be!), we then had to decide where best to hold the paper so that it was as close to the camera as possible, but not obscuring the lens. The idea was so that we could look at the camera lens without moving our eyes about too much. Not as easy as you might think. Anyway, Mr Randall elected to go first and did his piece in his classroom, which was handy as we were able to make use of the whiteboard to display his words. No excuses for him then.

Several takes later, we were onto Mr Leech, who had two sections to film: one in his office, to introduce the school, and another sat at the 3d printer, talking about his role in the project. I am not sure whether having the 3d printer running at this point was a good idea, as it made a good deal of noise – let’s just hope it doesn’t obscure his words, as I’m sure he won’t want to do it again.

The next section of filming was done with different aspects of our ISS in the background: Ms Sinclair, our maths lead was first – after changing into her NASA T-shirt) and then Mrs Ross, who is responsible for the IT element. A number of takes later (mainly because Mrs Ross couldn’t contain her laughter!) it was my turn. Fortunately, I managed it in one take, although I haven’t looked at the footage yet.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable experience. We pulled together as a team and were greatly amused by each other’s quirky behaviour when in front of a lens – maybe I’ll put some outtakes together. A lot of thought had gone into what we were going to say and we all seemed to be relaying the same message: space is an excellent vehicle with which to inspire children, as they are quickly captivated and motivated to take responsibility for their own learning.