What did YOU do in the summer holidays?
Last time they went to Mars, designing and building rockets and Martian buggies. This year's Gifted and Talented students solved a mysterious murder!
Building on the success of last year’s Summer School, 'Aspire More Able' returned to work with students from Years 6 to 9 in a CSI-based week of fun and learning. Students spent a week exploring techniques that cover over 100 years of forensic science. From fingerprinting, blood splatter investigation, forensic anthropology, hair and fibre analysis and toxicology, to DNA extraction and analysis, the students went from the time of Sherlock Holmes to CSI and Inspector Morse. At the same time they extended their critical thinking skills while having great fun.
This was a demanding week that saw the students analysing crime scenes, interpreting evidence and scrutinising witness statements. The tasks were challenging and needed great skill and teamwork. Ultimately they had to deduce the 'who, how and why' of the crime. Our students rose to the challenge magnificently, showing imagination, good humour and huge ability coupled with a determination to see justice done.
The groups managed to beat three of the all-time highest scores that have stood since 2007. Comments included: “Very enjoyable!”, “Brilliant”, “I enjoyed the week and would go again”, “Lots of fun”, “I arrived alive and I left dead... It was definitely worth it!”.
Miss Marple and Poirot would be proud of them! In the end Team Grisson just pipped the rest to the post. But huge congratulations needs to go to all the participants who worked exceptionally well together. Next year they may be trying to survive the destruction of the Earth as we know it following an asteroid impact!
