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Science just got better
A GROUNDBREAKING science centre is to open in Bloomsbury this autumn to boost the subject in London schools.
The centre, which will be based in the University of London’s Institute of Education in Bedford Way, will provide resources to teachers looking to spice up science lessons.
It also aims to strengthen ties with science industries by getting representatives into classrooms to fire pupils’ imaginations.
Led by Setnet, a national education charity promoting science, engineering, technology and maths, the centre will cost around £600,000 to set up and maintain over the first three years, with the funding coming from the Mayor’s London Development Agency.
If successful, similar projects may open across the country.
The initiative follows a survey by the LDA which found that pupils are turned off science because they falsely believe it is boring, or because schools have a lack of quality resources.
Chancellor Gordon Brown’s March budget acknowledged the issue by pledging cash to provide for 3,000 extra science teachers, to tackle the dwindling numbers of students staying with the subject.
A quarter of all Britain’s science vacancies are in London but a Camden survey in January claimed there was only one science vacancy in the borough, a part-time physics post. |
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