enrichment: ENRICHMENT FUNDING
We did it! Delivering
‘Our local university lent us a planetarium’
the idea of bringing a mobile planetarium into school. This would allow us to provide the planetarium experience to a whole year group and make it much easier for nervous students (particularly those in our autism unit) to access because they could stay in a familiar environment. However, when we discovered that
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the cost of hiring a planetarium was around £500 plus VAT, I got in touch with the Department of Physics and Astronomy outreach team at Sussex University. I had received earlier emails about the outreach work provided across the university, including free use of a mobile planetarium, and realised I could tap into what they were offering. I did have to be persistent to get things organised and I had to do quite a lot of liaising to make sure the four- metre high infl atable dome would fi t into our school hall. But we fi nally managed to book a date in May. The university team were able to
infl ate the dome in our hall within half an hour. It looked like a UFO had landed and it created a huge buzz, with excited students trying to peer through the doors. The
12 AUTUMN 2023 FundEd
chool trips can be prohibitively expensive for some students so our science department had
BOARDING PASS
FLIGHT CA2385 GATE 12
SEAT 20B
planetarium show was projected inside the dome and we took in groups of around 30 students for each 20-minute session. The show, We Are Astronomers, was designed with the GCSE spec in mind (covering the electro-magnetic spectrum for example). We ran ten sessions to accommodate the whole of Year 8 and also some Year 9 students – and we had a fantastic reaction from all. I also opened two evening sessions
to families in our community for a nominal fee. This was partly to help with community relationship building and also to attract possible new pupils in the future. Additionally, one of our parents,
Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, gave a talk about a book he has co-written with art historian Alexandra Loske called The Moon in Science, Art and Culture. We sold tickets for the talk, which explored how the moon has been used in art since time began and how it is viewed across different cultures. It was followed by a Q&A and the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the book. Around 70-80 people attended and we provided refreshments. This raised about £400 for our coffers, so it was a win/win all round! Amanda Burgess, community liaison and income generating manager, Priory School, Lewes
‘The university team were able
to inflate the dome within half an hour. It looked like a UFO had landed and created a huge buzz’
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