We are proud to announce that over summer Sharples School was certified with the Space Education Quality Mark – Bronze Award by STEM Learning for demonstrating excellence in using Space Education to inspire students to be passionate about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
This marks the first step on our way to becoming one of the top secondary providers of Space Education in the region, being one of the only schools or colleges with a university grade observatory facility (above) as well as offering the rare GCSE Astronomy as part of our challenge curriculum. Our Space related programmes are rapidly expanding, and we are ambitiously aiming to be awarded Silver and Gold over the next two years.
Students at Sharples are able to access Space Education across all year groups, from Year 7 Astronomy (below left) and Star Wars Clubs (below right) to selecting GCSE Astronomy as one of their options in Year 8 onwards.
Further Space related enrichment events throughout the year ensure that students are aware of the opportunities that exist to them in one of the UK’s fastest growing industrial sectors, including talks from Astrophysicists (top left) and Astronauts (top right), as well as observing celestial events, such as the partial solar eclipse earlier this year (bottom).
Thanks go to all the staff at Sharples who have worked hard towards this award and provided our students with high quality enrichment opportunities.
Mr J. Harding – Science Enrichment Coordinator, Space Education Lead
