St Mark’s Academy in Mitcham, part of Anthem Schools Trust, has marked British Science Week by hatching 14 chicks!

British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of thousands of events running throughout the whole of the UK with the aim of celebrating science, engineering, technology and maths. With no restrictions on who can organise events, the topics on which they are focused, the audience or the venue, the resulting programme is a hugely varied and eclectic mix suitable for people of all ages and abilities. British Science Week is coordinated by the British Science Association and is funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).
To celebrate British Science Week this year, St Mark’s Academy decided to hatch 14 chick eggs at the school and the success rate has been heartwarming. All 14 eggs have successfully hatched and were moved into their brooder during the awareness week . The students have been visiting the chicks at any free moment they have and the joy has spread to the staff, the parents and wider stakeholders who all want to capture a piece of the incredible life cycle of the gorgeous animals.

To ensure students take away some meaningful learning from this, the staff at the science department have been engaging with the students about how birds reproduce and how they develop inside the egg. The academy is also doing a fancy dress theme of ‘adaptations over time’ to get students to engage with wider cross curricular learning of the theory of evolution and different ecosystems, they even managed to get an exclusive visit from a snake during science week too!

To help further embed this knowledge, the academy also arranged for students to visit the zoo and the science museum during the week. At St Marks Academy, the Science Department aims to provide a broad and balanced science education for all. This encompasses and promotes progression, continuity and access to science for all students. The academy provides, through well-constructed studies of investigative and practical activities, a science education which enables the learner to understand how science operates, to be able to be scientific in analysing and solving problems and appreciate science as a human activity.

Hannah Fahey, Principal at St Marks Academy said:
“At St Mark’s Academy, we believe that science is an integral part of our lives and we want every child to have a true lived experience of the joy that science can bring. It has been brilliant to see how keen our students have been to watch the chicks hatch and learn all about them this British Science Week.”