Science detectives at St Cuthberts

St Cuthbert’s Enquiry School programme was looking at the question: ‘If children learn investigative skills thorough science, can they transfer these skills when problem solving in other curriculum subjects?’
Working with their creative agent to explore their question, the school recruited a scientist and a professional writer as creative partners. Evaluation shows that the children feel they learned lots more about each other and that staff have learnt a lot more about them as people. The collaborative aspect of the programme was judged particularly important and school felt learnt a great deal from the scientist, the writer and from working outdoors. Pupils enjoyed playing a questioning ‘detective’ role in their writing.