This project is all about possibilities. It’s about aiming high – literally #outofthisworld. Who would have thought that we would actually achieve a live link with Tim Peake! Well, we have and it is now a reality. The publicity is out there, so tune in 25th February at 10am.

Achieving our goals is down to the hard work of everyone at Rode Heath: the teachers, the children, the parents, MMU and the Out of this World team, who have all believed in the possibilities – ‘Never ignore a possible’ (a great quote from our Year 5 class book The Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell). So a huge thank you everyone – WOW!

All those whose questions we have selected will receive specially printed T-shirts to mark the event. These will also be available for people to purchase as a memento after the Hangout.

This week we have achieved several milestones, despite being largely focussed on assessments, our most notable of which has been the creation of our first 3D objects for the ISS.

This is no mean feat, as we have been through many teething problem before finding an excellent solution in Tinkercad – again this would not have been achieved without persistence and hard work on the part of Mr Leech. Children are now able to work at home online with their parents and then send the stl file they have produced directly to school for printing. Currently, the Y5s are trialling this, but we expect to roll it out to the rest of school in the very near future.

Indeed, everyone who encounters our Out of This World project seems to be genuinely interested and keen to take part. Our Year 5 gymnastics teacher, Sarah Brewitt, has been adapting her sessions to fit in with our Train Like an Astronaut programme, linking gymnastics with science.  I asked her to write about some of the activities she chose to illustrate centre of gravity.

Using Science in Gymnastics

Partner and counter balancing involves the understanding of being ‘on balance’ which means ensuring the ‘connection point’ or centre of mass is over the point which is connected to the floor. For example, balancing on one foot will require a slight shift in the body to move over the foot you are balancing on which is in connection with the floor.

The class were asked to seek their centre of mass by standing against a wall with their hips and heels touching the wall. Keeping their hips and heels touching, they were asked to lean forwards to touch their toes. They all found they felt like they were either going to fall over or did fall forwards. When asked why they replied they ‘were off balance’ and they had to move their feet forwards allowing the centre of mass to be over point of balance which was their feet.

During a partner counter balance gymnasts were asked to make their feet touch, forming a ‘support base’ and cross their arms over holding wrists. When connected and ready, they were asked to squeeze their bodies tight and lean backwards keeping their bodies in a straight line. They tested what would happen if one gymnast were to lean further than the other and questioned how to balance if the mass of a person was the bigger than the other. The connection of hands became the centre of the two gymnasts and therefore this had to remain over the support base which was their feet.

Sarah Brewitt