The Simon Langton grammar school in Kent has shot to national consciousness recently with its cosmic ray monitoring experiments that are soon to be above the earth on a satellite. NASA, it seems, is embarrassed. Clearly, monitoring earth-bound high energy radiation is not the only way that this school interacts positively with the world of science and scientists, as the school's website illustrates. As such, its tangible ambition for itself and its students seems a far cry from the grammar school that I attended, albeit in what was a very different time, and in what seems now almost a different country.
It is certainly hard not to disagree with the Head's comments about the cruel deception explicit within the 'faux' experimentation that has passed for much of school science over time, and which has made it so subfusc and off-putting. Hard, also, not to applaud the schools refusal of the handcuffs of the national curriculum – something that was open to every school to do, had it vision and courage.
Given their presence at the [ please insert the cliché of your choice ] of science, I hope that it's only a matter of time before the school turns its considerable talents to helping out the IPCC which remains in greater need of support than even NASA.
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