At Stanbridge, it is our intention to develop a lifelong curiosity and interest in science in our pupils. We aim for children to have the opportunity, wherever possible, to learn through a variety of investigations, leading to them being equipped for life to ask and answer questions about the world around them.

We therefore teach science in a different way to how most primary schools teach it as we have our very own specialist science teacher. Children in year groups 1-6 visit Miss Hoddinott in the Cosmic Cabin for their science lessons for an afternoon every week or fortnight throughout the school year.

Teaching science in this way is new to us at Stanbridge and started in September 2019. The rationale behind this approach was that children get an expert in this area of the curriculum. As well as having a science degree and PGCE, Miss Hoddinott worked for several years as a science communicator for the likes of: We the Curious, Explorer Dome and the Bristol Natural History Consortium.

As the Cosmic Cabin is only used for science lessons, it means that there is a wide range of specialist equipment at the children’s finger tips. The classroom is essentially a working lab with experiments that can be observed over time. Because much of science is hands on, having a specific classroom for science learning means that children are freer to ‘work scientifically’ by exploring, discovering, experimenting and observing.

The Cosmic Cabin

The Cosmic Cabin is located in the old ‘Elliot building’ which, up until recently, was only used outside of school hours for the After-school club. The classroom got its fabulous name after a school wide competition was launched to rename it. Thank you Thomas Bennet for picking such a fun and appropriate name for the space.

Inside the Cosmic Cabin, children have got stuck in to all kinds of experiments which have included dissecting an ox heart, exploring rocks, creating shadow shows, playing with magnets, making fossils, dissolving substances, melting chocolate, chewing food, evaporating mixtures and constructing bath bombs to name just a few things!