After a three hour coach journey from Derby, we arrived at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in Kensington at just after 4pm. This gave us a couple of hours to relax and prepare ourselves for the big night ahead. My head teacher had travelled down separately, as only the team leads of the new finalists had been invited to the Derby events.

At 6pm sharp, we all gathered in the hotel foyer, keen to make our way to our prestigious dinner venue. There was a great atmosphere. Everyone looked very smart in their suits, lapels adorned with single red poppies, a poignant reminder of all the brave soldiers who lost their lives in the World Wars – still remembered.

And, what an incredible place it was to spend the evening – the obvious choice for a Science Award. The guest list was equally impressive. I felt quite honoured to be included amongst such eminent people and wondered whether I should have produced as list of intelligent questions to ask. It felt quite surreal eating my deconstructed prawn cocktail beneath the giant exhibits in the Making the Modern World Gallery, which showcases 150 of the most significant items from the Science Museum’s collections, including Stephenson’s original Rocket locomotive.

Before dinner we were treated to a series of short videos celebrating this year’s finalist projects. Of course, next year, it will be our team sitting there gauging the reaction of the crowd and wondering whether we have won the top prize. Although, winning didn’t seem to be the most important factor; it was all about celebrating the outstanding practice of teachers and the impact that their work has on children and their understanding of science. There was much appreciation from all quarters. Every speaker thanked the participants for their enthusiasm for and commitment to science. I felt really proud on behalf of our school to be included. And, we should feel proud of ourselves, as over 2,000 schools submit entries for this prize and we are one of only 9 finalists this year. Well done, Rode Heath.

After dinner, the ceremonies began with keynote speaker, Richard Noble, who spoke passionately about his exciting BloodHound SSC venture, now on track for a 2015 record attempt. Imagine a car aiming to travel at 1,000 miles per hour. Of course, we were lucky enough to take some of our junior children last year to Reaseheath college to see the replica Bloodhound car and take part in various STEM activities, so it was particularly interesting to see Richard in person.

Sir Tim Smith KBE, founding director of the Eden project, who has been involved with the RR Science Prize since its inception 10 years ago, made a brief, but very amusing speech, before awarding the Eden Award to St Mun’s Primary School for their ‘If You Go Down in the Woods Today’ project. Then it was up to the Chief Executive, John Rishton, to announce the runner up and prize winner.

The runner up was Chesterton Community College for their ‘Introducing Engineering via Animatronics’ project, but the overall prize went to Kate Greenway Nursery School & Children’s Centre for their ‘Playful Science for Everyone’. This was an interesting project as it involved children as young as 6 months old. Its aim was to provide very early science experiences to children and their families through a range of exploratory activities. I strongly believe that in order to generate future engineers, we need to capture and nurture children’s interest in all things scientific at a very early age. I think we are going to achieve this with our Out of This World project.

Certainly we are beginning to develop an interest in science across a wide audience, which includes both children and their parents. Our relationship with MMU will encourage our children even further by providing them with real experiences of what it is like to study science at university.

I can’t wait for our visit to MMU in January next year. In the meantime, we have a number of exciting events planned to inspire the children: Intergalactic pass the parcel; a Mars soil investigation and programming rovers using Raspberry Pi technology. We owe a massive thank you to all our external supporters who are helping us to achieve our goals.

And, of course, tomorrow we have one of the most exciting events in space history . . . the landing of the probe Philae on 67P. How can anyone fail to be awe-inspired by space?

What an amazing two days I have just had. Being involved in the Rolls-Royce Science Prize has certainly been a most rewarding experience so far. I recommend that all schools at least investigate applying – if nothing else, it encourages you look at the impact that science is currently having in your school and you may even be awarded some money to help with your plans.

Anyway, back to the weekend which saw me catching a train to Derby on Sunday afternoon – eager to reach the hotel and meet my fellow competitors. Conveniently, the Pentahotel was within easy walking distance of the station, and after asking directions, I soon arrived. First impressions were favourable; although, I have to say the ambience was very reminiscent of a night-club – lots of subdued purple lighting. At 7pm everyone met in the foyer and I recognised Henry, our mentor, and several people from the project videos I had watched. Having made a few introductions, we then made our way to the designated restaurant to be greeted by Rani.

The ensuing meal was absolutely excellent, with wine and conversation flowing freely. I must admit that, having checked the wine bar out on the Internet, I was initially not sure about the predominance of black and red as a colour scheme. I now however realise the logic behind the choice – it is almost impossible to detect spillages on black table cloths. And, I have to say that during the course of the night, on our table alone, there were numerous incidents, including a bottle of red wine at one point. I think one of the main problems was the table mats, carefully concealed underneath the cloth, which made it very difficult to judge where to put your glass down safely, particularly as the evening progressed.

At one point, we were entertained by a magician, who performed a number of very clever tricks. Despite watching intently for any sleight of hand, I am still mystified as to how he manipulated the cards and managed to change a £10 note into a dollar. He was rather more successful than the poor singer, who seemed to get louder and louder in a vain attempt to be heard over the ever increasing background chatter. Despite the noise level (which was actually quite deafening at times) this was a great opportunity to get to know people and find out about their projects, all of which seemed very credible. As well as finalists, there were a number of Rolls-Royce employees on our table, many of whom were mentors. It was very interesting to listen to them talk about their role within the company – you got the distinct impression that they really enjoyed their jobs and that Rolls-Royce was a good place to work and valued its employees. Indeed, a very nice touch at the end of the evening was when each school was presented with a framed certificate celebrating the excellence of its science teaching.

Next morning, we were driven to the Learning & Development centre where, following a brief talk, we embarked upon a tour of the Heritage Trust Centre to learn about the history of Rolls & Royce and the development of the various engines. It was an extremely interesting experience made all the more enjoyable by the enthusiasm of our guides. I never appreciated that Charles Rolls had been killed so early on in the partnership. I wonder how things would have played out had he survived.

The next stop on our tour was to view the manufacturing of critical rotatives. Once inside the building, we had to put on rubber overshoes and wear safety glasses before being allowed onto the vast shop floor. Although the visit was brief, it became very clear that the overriding focus is on the production of the highest quality products, which are tested and retested at every stage to ensure absolute consistency and reliability. Although we were not allowed to take any photographs, an interesting fact that I learned was that the Trent 900 engines, which power the Airbus A380, draw in enough air to inflate 72,000 party balloons in one second . . . that’s a lot of balloons.

Engine to power a Harrier Jump Jet

Charles Rolls, Claude Johnson & Henry Royce

A rocket engine.

Explaining how an internal combustion engine works – suck, squeeze, bang and blow.

Quite a short blog this week, as it’s been half-term, although school work has inevitably gone on. The main thrust was to put the 5 minute video together for the Rolls-Royce competition. Fortunately, I had plenty of footage to work with – it was deciding what to include that was the problem. Having reviewed the clips, I think that next time, if we are going to read from pieces of paper, we need to focus more on where we hold our scripts. I definitely don’t look as if I am looking at the camera – in fact, it’s quite disturbing to watch. Good job I’m not on camera for long.

To be fair though, I have started to look more closely at videos on YouTube and quite a few of the ‘actors’ seem to have wandering eyes. Perhaps we should invest in an autocue for next time!

To produce the final edit I used iMovie on my Apple MacBook Pro computer and I am pleased with the results. I think it tells a good story and puts across our message quite succinctly. Let’s hope Rolls-Royce think so. I have included all the raw footage on a DVD, as well as my film, for their media department to be creative with.

The other important event of the week was a visit to Daresbury Laboratory. I had been invited earlier in the term by Wendy Cotterill to an access afternoon and I took my colleague, Sharron Ross, with me. I thought it would provide a good opportunity to make some contacts and try and establish a relationship with their education team.

The afternoon was primarily for employees and their children and it started with an excellent hour long talk by Dr Phil Manning entitled ‘working with Dinosaurs’. He was extremely entertaining and both Sharron and I learned a great deal. I particularly liked his urging of children to always work at the ‘edge of their understanding’ – my philosophy entirely.

Following this, we were able to observe children taking part in a number of space-related activities, including creating a 3D Philae lander; building a comet and producing some effective deep space galaxy art – all of which Sharron is going to try out with KS1. Of particular interest was a demonstration of how to make a comet out of sand, soil, tabasco and dry ice! I think we are going to attempt this in an assembly to mark the launching of the Philae probe on 12^th November – providing we can obtain the ingredients, of course!

Over the course of the afternoon, we met some very interesting and potentially useful contacts, one of whom was Louise Dennis, a STEM ambassador from Liverpool University. She was demonstrating how to program robots using a Raspberry Pi – perfect for our Year 6 class.

Wendy introduced us to her new boss, Phill Day, who seemed very interested in what we were doing. I am hoping that we will be able to develop a long term relationship with STFC and become one of their key primary partners – altogether a very successful day.

Not long now until the Rolls-Royce event at the Science Museum. I am really looking forward to meeting the other candidates . . .

Making 3D lander

DIY comet

Galaxy pictures