Skirting Science

For the second year running, Churchill hosted the Soroptimist International Skirting Science event with nearly 300 Year 9 girls and their teachers attending from schools across the county.  Skirting Science aims to inspire the next generation of female scientists, bringing together Year 9 girls and science professionals from various research, industrial and educational establishments.

The day began with an inspirational talk from Dr Ozak Esu, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year about her journey into Electrical Engineering.  The girls then had the opportunity to take part in a variety of different workshops from building robots, to extracting DNA and identifying the chemicals which make different smells.

What did the girls say?

“Really good fun, really nice to meet lots of people from different schools.”

“I really enjoyed the day, it was fun mixing with other schools and every activity I did was exciting.”

“It was very interesting to explore science a different way and seeing lots of different schools.”

“The practicals we did in Skirting Science inspired many students from different schools to get more involved in science”

“I really enjoyed meeting all the other schools and doing all the practicals. I found out way more about science than I thought there could be. All of the scientists that came in were really friendly”

We are grateful to all the organisations that gave up their time to inspire the girls: The University of the West of England, University of Bristol, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Institute of Civil Engineers, Alvis Brothers Ltd, Airbus, Buro Happold Engineering, Weston College, Rolls Royce, Science & Technology Facilities Council and High Tech Bristol & Bath CIC. 

Thanks also to Anne Graham, Ruth Thomas, Melanie David and Susan Long who organised the event on behalf of Soroptimist International Weston-super-Mare and our Science staff.  Finally a big thank you to our Year 10 ambassadors who were fantastic in helping with the organisation of such a large event at the school on the day.