We are now coming to the end of our school activities for this academic year, and what a year it has been. We have more than doubled the number of schools we went to last year, touched the lives of thousands of parents and children and we haven't finished yet. We said goodbye recently to Casterton Primary School and St Johns Primary in Burnley, St James in Lower Darwen and Longshaw Primary School in Blackburn. This week we reach the end of our work in schools when we complete our work in Darwen with Ashleigh Primary School's Gifted and Talented programme, St Josephs Primary and St Barnabas (incidentally, the site of our first ever observing evening. Nice bit of symmetry there).
It has been a rewarding year, extremely busy and very exciting for us, students, staff and parents. We've had the absolute privilege of calling upon the services of Professor Ian Morison of Gresham College and Jodrell Bank to lead our Stargazing Live observing events. If nothing else, the man is a superstar. Thanks very much to the Society for Popular Astronomy for putting us in contact with him.
Our school work has stopped for the year but our summer activities, however, continue in earnest. We have teamed up with the brilliant Summer Fun 4 All to deliver activities as part of their programme of summer activities. We will be doing a rocket building session where children compete to build the best penumatic-launch rocket and we are also going away on space camp. Twenty children, ten staff and a bunch of telescopes will all be piled on a bus and carted off to a fantastic outdoor pursuits centre in Cumbria where we will be doing sports by day and science by night under the motto:
SAS: Who Cares Wins
Every time I use that phrase the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! I really cannot wait to go. I do not expect to sleep much over that weekend. We are also hopefully going to do some stargazing locally in Darwen too for those who cannot make it all the way up to Cumbria.
It's been a great year and it's going to be a great summer holiday period. The best part of it all is that we are currently running at around a fifth of the capacity and funding we have placed bids for so there is only one way that we can go from here.
Below are some photos of the brilliant staff and students we have worked with this year. Click to go to our Picasa gallery and view the high resolution photgraphs.
Adam, the author of this blog is cycling coast to coast this year for charity. Please sponsor me here.
Check out this song from one of my favourite bands, Kings X.
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