News from schools and colleges across your county
Cookery with a difference
Forget mince pies, Northbourne Park School Pre-Prep children have been cooking up mud pies in their new Mud Kitchen in the school’s garden, near Deal. Class Two children were the first outside for their Forest School lesson, where they mixed and ‘cooked’ in their new bowls and pans, preparing a feast for their classmates who then ‘ate’ at the new tables and benches, all carved by local wood carver Les Langley using fallen logs from the school grounds. Northbourne Park’s Director of Outdoor Education and Forest School Practitioner, Priscilla Smith said: “Northbourne Park’s 100 acres of private parkland and woods provides the perfect environment in which to bring learning to life. “Here we ensure that every child is able to learn, explore and experience the great outdoors.”
Seeking sub-zero heroes
Following a successful summer of science spectaculars, Doc. Yard, The Historic Dockyard’s brilliant but slightly eccentric resident professor, is away on another intrepid expedition.
This time he’s pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration and visiting both the North and South Poles via the shortest route possible - through the centre of the earth! Back at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Doc’s trusty assistant Bunsen is trying to find ways to keep the Doc safe from the extremes of the sub-zero cold and needs the Dockyard’s growing army of Techsplorers to chill out in the Secret Lab and help with some cool new research. Every day during February half term (13-21 February), then during weekends and through the Easter holidays, from 10.30am-3pm, Bunsen will be looking for volunteer Techsplorers to become ‘Sub-Zero Heroes’ and assist in hands-on family friendly experiments. Intrepid Techsplorers will have to prove they’re cool enough to enter the Secret Lab. They will be issued with lab coat and glasses and scanned using Bunsen’s ‘cool-techtor’ thermal imaging camera to make sure they’re super cool. Once inside, the Techsplorers will work through the different zones of the Secret Lab, plunging into a series of scientific experiments, ranging from “Ice Cube Challenge” and “Antarctic Ice Creams” to “Super Cool Sculpture” and culminating in the “Solid CO2 Spectacular”. More information at: www.thedockyard.co.uk
Hanging Gardens of Medway
A living green wall packed with plants including primula and thyme is the latest addition to the University of Greenwich’s Medway Campus. The living green wall, next to the historic Pembroke Building, is part of research project being led by Dr Anna Romanova of the university’s Faculty of Engineering & Science to evaluate the benefits living walls offer as part of initiatives to green the campus’ built environment.
Three’s the magic number
Three is the magic number for two students from West Kent who have won encouragement prizes sponsored by Millwood Designer Homes. Micaela Sowerby, 19, from Leigh near Tonbridge, has been awarded the Encouragement Prize for Creativity by Hillview School for Girls for the third year in a row. The prize is part of the prestigious Encouragement Pack initiative that it runs with a number of schools in Kent and East Sussex. Micaela has won the Millwood prize for Creativity three times for her A-Level graphics work. At Hillview, she studied Media Studies, Graphics, Drama and English Literature and Language and is currently at Bournemouth University studying Communication and Media. Good things clearly come in threes as Lucy Rimmer, from Tunbridge Wells, is the third Rimmer sister to win the coveted cup for A-Level Geography, also awarded by Millwood Designer Homes, after her sisters Imogen and Isabel. A former student at Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar, Lucy is now studying medicine at Birmingham University.
