One of our many extra curricular activities is the Astronomy club at Tuxford, which has been running for over 10 years and is open to all students, at all key stages.
Our students learn more about the night sky and physics. We have two main telescopes which we bought using donations from the then PTA and school money. We also had another telescope donated to us for the HELM from the charity Scopes4SEN to help students learn about the night sky in class. It’s also fantastic that we have different year groups all socialising and working together.
The main aim is to get outside and locate the constellations, moon and the key planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and the International Space Station that sometimes passes overhead. The students take the telescopes outside, set them up and help one another stargaze. In the past we have had local scouts, beaver, cub scouts and guide groups in to get their astronomy badges and our students have helped them achieve this. This is always a great community event.
When it rains or is cloudy, we do sessions inside where the students may research a topic and make a presentation or we watch educational videos/clips on topics about the moon and solar system (in fact anything the students want to learn about). We’ve drawn constellations on black paper and back lit them, as well as mini experiments such as making ‘rockets’ from fizzy drinks.
We meet on the first Wednesday of the month 3.30-4.30pm.
