EARLIER this month, the science department at The Hurst organised a number of events and activities to celebrate British Science Week.

The week started with the now traditional ‘Eggheads’ assemblies, pitching teams from each of the four houses against their tutors with their scientific knowledge being tested.

Tuesday saw a visit from several of our feeder schools. Each school brought a team to construct and race their own rocket cars in the aptly named ‘projectile hall’.

We were also pleased to host a visit from the Royal Institution as part of its schools outreach programme on Thursday. This was funded by AWE, and included science shows for all Year 7 and 8 pupils, with a community event in the evening. There were a number of exciting demonstrations including explosions and flashes, all expertly explained by a very entertaining member of the Royal Institute team.

Many pupils have been busy designing lab coats as part of a competition run by Bayer and we are looking forward to selecting the five best entries to forward to the company in this national event.

Finally, we were very pleased to invite back an ex-head boy, Matthew England, who kindly gave up his time to speak to Year 9 pupils about his career path through college and university as well as his current job in the pharmaceutical division of Bayer, based in its Reading office.