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Exclusive for 2025: Free Thinking, Doing, Talking Science CPD course
Wednesday 8th January 2025
Thanks to the generous support of The Oxford Trust, the upcoming 2025 Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (TDTScience) continued professional development course for primary teachers is free to all participants.
Congratulations to the winners of the Big Science Event finals 2024!
Wednesday 10th July 2024
One of Science Oxford’s highlights of the year, the Big Science Event, reached peak excitement on 8th and 9th July when primary schools from across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire gathered for the grand finals at the Science Oxford Centre.
Thinking, Doing, Talking Science informs guidance to improve primary science teaching
Monday 4th December 2023
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a new guidance report “Improving Primary Science”, with six key recommendations to improve high-quality primary science teaching.
Free places on our Thinking, Doing, Talking Science course
Wednesday 13th September 2023
We have free and discounted places available on our Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (TDTS) continued professional development course for teachers at the Science Oxford Centre, starting on 6 November.
Inquisitive young minds impress judges at the Big Science Event 2023
Wednesday 12th July 2023
Science Oxford’s Big Science Event wrapped up the annual search for Oxfordshire’s and Buckinghamshire’s most engaging and experimental young scientists with the finals on 10th and 11th July.at the Science Oxford Centre.
Primary Science Conference spreads ideas for high-impact science teaching
Friday 23rd June 2023
Thanks to dedicated teachers, hundreds of enthusiastic primary school children bubbling with energy visit the Science Oxford Centre each week to explore science. So, we were pleased to dedicate a day at our centre this week to amazing teachers such as these, when we hosted the Primary Science Conference organised by the Oxfordshire and Reading […]
Science Oxford fires up enthusiasm for science during British Science Week
Thursday 23rd March 2023
The Great Kimble Primary School hall echoed with gasps of awe and delight. Alice had just set a puff of cornflour alight and a cloud of fire flashed in front of her, quickly disappearing. The pupils cheered when Alice suggested she do it again. This was one of many, literally, blazing moments in Science Oxford’s […]
A hot summer in the woodland
Tuesday 19th July 2022
As summer temperatures reach the highest ever recorded in the UK today, the effects on the natural world and how to look after our green spaces and wildlife is on our all minds. Luckily, we’re in good hands at the Science Oxford Centre with our Outdoor Learning and Ecology Manager, Dr Roger Baker — read his woodland update, and top tips to keep a cool head in these unprecedented times.
Young scientists shine at Big Science Event summer finals
Tuesday 12th July 2022
The sun shone for the finals of our Big Science Event 2022 this week. Held at the Science Oxford Centre in Headington on 11th & 12th July, children from 24 primary schools across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire were competing in this year’s grand final – a competition to find the county’s most engaging and experimental young scientists.
Teachers inspired at the Primary Science Conference
Monday 4th July 2022
The Science Oxford Centre was filled with primary teachers from across the Oxfordshire and Reading areas on Monday 4th July for the annual Primary Science Conference – the first full day in-person conference since before the pandemic.
A not completely alive Live Lab session
Tuesday 10th May 2022
If you visit the Science Oxford Centre for a Family Day this summer, you just might see something unusual. Our pop up ‘Live Lab’ is an interactive space where families get to meet a scientist, student or researcher – or one of our expert team.
British Science Week – back with a bang!
Tuesday 8th March 2022
With British Science Week (BSW) just around the corner, we’re excited to be engaging with so many schools and families. British Science Week is a ten-day national celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths that will take place between 11-20 March 2022. This year, the theme is ‘Growth’, which is apt as our BSW programme has […]
Centre awarded Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge
Tuesday 22nd February 2022
We are thrilled to announce our Science Oxford Centre was recently re-awarded the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom’s Quality Badge, a seal of approval that shows to schools that our primary education programme is of a high standard. The Quality Badge certificate was first awarded in 2019 after the Centre opening and reflects our […]
Do Look Up! Book our amazing planetarium show for your school
Monday 14th February 2022
The Science Oxford outreach team are enjoying taking our new inflatable planetarium dome to primary schools across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire this term. It’s an exciting time for science, with images of the sunset on Mars, rockets launching into space and the NASA’s James Webb Telescope mission to ‘unfold the universe’ a million miles away from […]
Children reach for the Stars with Dr Maggie’s Space tour!
Monday 15th November 2021
“She encourages you to reach for the stars…” Local school children were ‘over the moon’ to watch a Grand Tour of the Solar System with Space scientist and BBC The Sky at Night presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock for the Oxford Literary Festival (OLF). Eight Year 5 pupils from St Andrews school in Cowley, Oxford and […]
Inspiring change at the Science Oxford Centre
Monday 27th September 2021
Science Oxford is delighted to have taken part in ‘Project Inspire’ with the Association of Science and Discovery Centres‘ (ASDC) this spring and summer and inspired change in our Centre! In March of this year, we were lucky enough to be chosen as one of eight UK Science Centres awarded a grant of £15,000, to […]
Summer woodland delights at the Science Oxford Centre
Wednesday 11th August 2021
Enjoying the outdoors this summer? We were delighted to finally welcome back visitors to our Centre this season, where we are lucky enough to have 15 acres of woodlands, grassland and ponds to explore. The Science Oxford Centre is the only indoor-outdoor science centre for children and families in the UK, and we love seeing people […]
Wantage Church of England Primary and The Disraeli School win Science Oxford’s Big Science Event 2021
Friday 2nd July 2021
A team of children from Wantage Church of England Primary School Nursery won this year’s Big Science Event for Oxfordshire with their experiment on What makes snow melt faster? and The Disraeli School’s Year 2’s experiment Will a grape turn into a raison? are the 2021 winners of the Buckinghamshire competition. Runners up in the […]
Branching out: celebrating National Tree Week at the Science Oxford Centre
Tuesday 24th November 2020
Planting trees seems more important than ever under the current circumstances – a chance to create positive change. This year we have been funded by the Tree Council Branching Out Fund to plant 25 trees in the 15-acre woodland surrounding our Science Oxford Centre in Headington. These will be dug in by a group of […]
Anneliese Dodds MP visits the Science Oxford Centre
Monday 28th September 2020
Anneliese Dodds MP took time out to visit our Science Oxford Centre recently with her daughter for one of our Family Open Days. During the week, the Centre is open for school visits but every other Saturday we welcome families to our Family Open Days, where they can try the hands-on exhibits in the Exploration Zone […]
Winners of the Big Science Event at Home announced!
Monday 20th July 2020
Our panel of science-friendly judges have now selected the winners of Science Oxford’s first Big Science Event at Home competition. We’d like to give a big virtual applaud to our winners brother and sister Leah and Harry Gould (ages 9 and 10) and their guinea pigs, Snowy and Toffee, who investigated “Which maze will […]
Science Oxford supports Science Centres for our Future Campaign
Tuesday 2nd June 2020
Science Oxford joins over 40 members of the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres’ (ASDC) nationwide campaign to call for Government to set up an Emergency Resilience Fund to support our world-class network of regional science centres. The campaign is being supported by some of the UK’s leading science advocates – including Professor Alice […]
Science Oxford’s Bridget Holligan wins Beetlestone Award
Monday 1st June 2020
Our very own Head of Education and Engagement, Bridget Holligan has been awarded the 2020 Beetlestone Award for informal learning in science. She talks about her 27 years of involvement in science education, working for Science Oxford and what it means to win the award. Curioxity… For the first 15 years of my career in […]
Expert Explainers Tell All at the Science Oxford Centre
Wednesday 11th March 2020
This term Science Oxford has been involved in a national programme to increase diversity and inclusion in science. We are one of just 15 organisations who are delivering initiatives as part of the UK Association of Science and Discovery Centre and the Science Museum Group’s Science Capital Programme. The initiative focuses on embedding good practice […]
Science Oxford Centre trialling post-visit activities for schools
Monday 10th February 2020
The Science Oxford Centre (SOC) team is currently trialling a series of post-visit activities for teachers to try out at school. Teachers have many calls on their time and we recognise that any resources we create need to be clear and easy-to-use. To this end, we have developed a set of five activities: the idea […]
Science Oxford Centre now open for bookings for summer term
Tuesday 14th January 2020
With visits from over 1200 pupils from 21 schools and fabulous reviews from both children and teachers, the Science Oxford Centre is now taking school bookings for the summer term. In the spring and summer months the 15-acre woodland surrounding the Centre really comes into its own. As well as sessions in our Exploration Zone, […]
Playforce donates generous prizes for our Big Science Event 2020
Wednesday 18th December 2019
Playground experts, Playforce are kindly donating generous prizes to the winners of our 2020 Big Science Event competition for primary school pupils. The winning schools in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire will each receive a £1000 voucher to install playground equipment of their choice. How good is that? With 20 years of experiences and 8844 playgrounds under […]
Year in review 2019: One giant leap for Science Oxford…
Friday 13th December 2019
In a year which saw the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo moon landing celebrated globally, Science Oxford took a giant leap of its own and launched the brand-new Science Oxford Centre in Headington. From hands-on schools exploration and family visits, to woodland walks and expert talks, we’ve welcomed over 2700 pupils from 37 schools […]
ISEN-sational news for Science Oxford
Friday 22nd November 2019
Sophie Batin, our education outreach manager, has become a member of the British Science Association’s new Inclusive Science Engagement Network (ISEN). This national network aims to support members to make their workplaces and activities more inclusive. The first area of focus for the network is helping members to develop, review and strengthen an internal Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity […]
E-van trial creates a BUZZ
Wednesday 6th November 2019
Electric vehicle mavericks buzzEV are loaning one of their fleet of electric vans to our outreach team to assist in the delivery of our STEM outreach programme to primary schools across the region. London-based buzzEV offers electric cars and vans for rental to business, sporting and educational establishments across the UK. They’ll soon be providing […]
FOREST SCHOOL REOPENS AT STANSFELD PARK
Friday 18th October 2019
Thanks to the generosity of three Oxford councillors, Science Oxford has been able to reopen a Forest School space in the woodland at its new Stansfeld Park home in Headington. Councillors Glynis Phillips, Roz Smith and Chewe Munkonge have all donated funds to support the project to develop a special area of the woodland that […]
Teachers! Get a taste of our new education centre
Tuesday 15th October 2019
If you’re looking for inspiration for a unique, enriching STEM activity or trip for your class to enjoy, look no further than here. Our popular teacher taster sessions, which give early years and primary school teachers the opportunity to come and explore our new Science Oxford Centre, run every Thursday from 4-6pm. These FREE twilight sessions […]
Planetarium Tour for Primary Schools is back for 2020!
Friday 11th October 2019
With 2020 due to be a stellar year for space exploration (SpaceX, Mars 2020 Rover, OSIRIS-Rex) we’re about to relaunch our very own space-themed show tour for primary schools. In association with STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, we will be bringing an inflatable planetarium to schools in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire next January. Starry Skies is a planetarium […]
Thumbs up for first ‘official’ school visit
Friday 20th September 2019
Today we welcomed Year 2 & 3 pupils from Oakley Church of England Combined School to the Science Oxford Centre (SOC) – our very first ‘paying visitors’ after the official opening of the centre at the start of September. We’ve been running trial visits from schools across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire since June to help us […]
Fabulous feedback from schools
Friday 6th September 2019
The education team at Science Oxford has been kept busy over the past few months, making sure that our new Science Oxford Centre is ready to go for visits from primary schools across Oxfordshire and Bucks. So far we’ve welcomed over 1400 children (aged 3-11), from 51 primary school classes, to the centre and they’ve […]
Headteacher with a special link to Stansfeld
Tuesday 16th July 2019
Andy Spooner is sitting on a stool in our Exploration Zone, keeping one eye on his Year 3 pupils who are zipping about between hands-on exhibits, while also trying to pose for a photograph and play with the circuit board challenge in front of him. Andy is Headteacher at St Nicolas Primary School in Abingdon […]
New course will help teachers bring creativity and skills to science lessons
Tuesday 2nd July 2019
If you’re a primary school teacher looking to develop creative and challenging science lessons which encourage children to use critical thinking skills, look no further. We’ve just launched the latest round of training days for our Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (TDTS) CPD programme which equips teachers with strategies and activity ideas that can translate immediately […]
Primary schools to battle it out to win science competition
Wednesday 26th June 2019
Primary school children from 12 primary schools across Oxfordshire will be competing in the grand final of the 2019 Big Science Event next week – a competition to find the county’s most engaging and experimental young scientists. The Big Science Event, which is run by Science Oxford, challenges teams of children aged 5-11 to create […]
A big thumbs up from first school visitors to new centre
Thursday 6th June 2019
What have teachers and children been saying about their visit to our brand new Science Oxford Centre? Over the past few weeks we’ve been running trial group visits to the centre for local primary schools and collecting feedback from both pupils and teachers. And so far the news is good – we’ve got a 100% approval […]
Make a difference for Oxford Green Week
Thursday 6th June 2019
It’s Oxford Green Week (OGW) and Science Oxford is lending its support with events and activities for all the family on the theme of One Planet Living. OGW is a summer festival that uses culture, creativity and community to inspire local people to take action against climate change in and around Oxford. It’s a celebration […]