Continuing Professional Development » Buckinghamshire Primary Science Conference

Buckinghamshire Primary Science Conference

February 24, 2027

Time: 9:30am – 4:00pm

Venue: St Clements Dane School, Chorleywood, WD3 6EW

Cost:

£100 per teacher
£20 per trainee
One free place per Science Oxford member school (on either the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Primary Science Conferences)

All primary teachers and trainee teachers across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are welcome to attend.

Be part of Science Oxford’s annual Buckinghamshire Primary Science Conference – a day dedicated to enriching your approach to primary science and sparking inspiration across your school community. Hear from a diverse line-up of expert speakers offering practical insights and fresh ideas to help you enhance science teaching and learning.

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Meet the speakers

Keynote speakers:

Alex Farrer is Development Lead for the Primary Science Quality Mark working with hundreds of schools each year, both in the UK and internationally to support the professional development of science leaders and teachers. She has taught in many different schools, leading science and STEAM, and holding various leadership roles as well as having been an LA science advisor for several years. Alex proudly gained PSQM Outreach for her school in 2019 and 2023, won the PSTT Primary Science Teacher Award in 2019 and is an accredited trainer of the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach. Alex is also the co-author of the PSTT resources “See Through Science” and “Sketchbook Science” and co-developed the unconscious bias materials “Science4Everyone” with the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Isabel Thomas is a science writer, secondary science teacher and the award-winning author of more than 300 books for young audiences, including Moth: An Evolution Story and the bestselling Impossible Questions series. Isabel also writes for children’s science magazines and BBC Bitesize, and works with organisations to create science outreach events and resources.

Isabel studied Human Sciences at the University of Oxford and completed her PGCE and an MPhil in Education Research at the University of Cambridge. Having grown up in a low-income, one-parent family, Isabel is passionate about inspiring children from diverse backgrounds to pursue science education and careers.

Agenda

Keynote address 1

‘Ask like a scientist’

Alex Farrer, Development Lead, Primary Science Quality Mark

Alex will outline the importance of children using their curiosity and interests to ask and answer scientific questions. Going beyond simply encouraging curiosity, strategies to teach children to ask questions, explain their thinking and communicate their ideas using scientific vocabulary will be explored.

Keynote address 2

‘Impossible questions’

Isabel Thomas, Author and Secondary Science Teacher

What’s the point of snot? Why is water wet? Are feelings made from atoms? Isabel Thomas has been collecting children’s weird and wonderful questions for more than a decade, and answering them in her bestselling Bedtime Book of Impossible Questions series. She will explore the links between children’s curious conundrums and real-life science, plus the potential for using your pupils’ own ‘impossible questions’ to build science capital in your primary classroom.

FAQs

1) What happens if I can’t make the event anymore?

We will refund you the cost of your booking, excluding the Eventbrite fee, if you let us know that you can no longer attend more than 7 days before the event.

Please note if you are a teacher who has booked a free place on the course, you will be charged a non-attendance fee equivalent to the price of the paid place if you do not cancel your booking at least 7 days before the event.

If you let us know within 7 days of the event, we can transfer your place to another teacher in your school.

2) What should I do if I made a mistake with my booking?

Please get in touch with us at [email protected] and we’ll help you rectify your booking.

3) My school is a member of Science Oxford. How do I book a free place?

Your school has been sent an access code to claim a free member ticket at checkout. If you haven’t received the access code, please get in touch with us at [email protected].