background to neston school
All schools are special of course. But Neston School is especially special to NESTA, and not because of the weird co-incidence of the similarity in name there.
A couple of years ago NESTA www.nesta.org.uk gave Neston School an award to build a moon base in their grounds.
Sounds a bit far-fetched ?
space station
Well how’s this for out of this world…in 2003 teacher Steve Heal and a friend of a friend of the governors of the school set up a live link to the International Space Station, and students from all the years in the school asked the astronauts questions! The questions were answered, (and good questions they were too!) the satellite window of communication with the ISS came to an end, and there was a big cheer to say thanks to astronaut Ed Lu.
What a fantastic experience for the school – but what next?
Mr Heal came up with a plan. To build a space dome in the school grounds, so the school had a base and a space just for science and technology activities. Another friend of a friend of the governors suggested NESTA seemed like the sort of organisation that might consider funding the project, and luckily for Neston, it was.
The project isn’t quite finished yet, the mirror maze is still being researched and built, but other elements of the project are up and running. The dome itself, the rocket greenhouse for plant experiments, the sensory garden beds, the pond and ‘hide’ shed and the willow walks to connect them all.
Classes use the dome regularly and you can tell what it’s done for the school by the amount of hands that shoot up when the classes are asked if they like science!
sunken garden
So, the scene is set. As part of their award Neston promised to share their luck with other teachers and students from other schools. This is their first foray into visits territory.
Here’s some views of the Italian Sunken Garden with summer house at the side of the school. A magical place for the children to play in the summer, it was built by the parents and governors in the 1930s. The moon base is following the tradition.
<< Go Back