This year it is 200 years since Charles Darwin, one of the world's most creative and influential thinkers, was born. It is the scientific community’s celebration of this event which has provided the stimulus for Dolphin’s Science Week though the events and activities undertaken covered a broader range of science.

Science Week started on Monday 28^th September with a trip by Years Seven and Eight to the special exhibition at the Natural History Museum about life as a scientist.

All children in the school from the ages of three to thirteen were involved in Science Week. There were visiting speakers, exciting workshops and even the opportunity for the children to dress up as their favourite inventor or invention!

We are very grateful to a number of parents, who have careers in science, for agreeing to give up some of their valuable time to come into school and share their experiences with the children. We are also grateful to Helen Jones, the Education Liaison Manager at Syngenta (a local agricultural science company), who will be coordinating DNA workshops with the oldest children and Creepy Crawlies workshops with the younger children, not to mention food production workshops too! Another highlight of the week was a talk by Professor Wendy Barclay from Imperial College who is an expert in respiratory viruses, particularly flu viruses which, of course, could not be more topical!

Another exciting feature of part of the week was that some activities were tackled through year group partnerships, something Dolphin children love. For example, Years One and Five worked together to produce ‘Boats that Float’!

Thursday was a special day for Year Six as we had Year Six children from Waltham St Lawrence and St Nicholas schools at Dolphin participating in our Science Week too. The children worked in small teams made up of children from Dolphin and a visiting school to try and solve a CSI style mystery with appropriate scientific techniques.

The week ended with a special assembly where each different year group had the opportunity to make a presentation about their experiences, in whatever format they choose, to the whole school.