Over the Easter holidays, when the rest of the Gomer Community were accelerating through their chocolate Easter eggs, Mrs Digby and Mrs Toone were spending 4 days busy learning about a quite different type of acceleration. The acceleration of science! At the European Organization for Nuclear Research – more commonly known as CERN, in Switzerland. 

Their study visit was a unique opportunity for UK primary teachers to visit CERN and have its facilities, functions and operation explained by the scientists and engineers who work there. This was the first ever official teacher programme at CERN aimed exclusively at primary teachers from the UK, and Mrs Digby and Mrs Toone were thrilled to be invited to go.

 
During their visit to the birth-place of the World Wide Web, they met world class physicists, engineers and mathematicians performing at the forefront of their fields – they were even lucky enough to meet a Nobel Prize winner. They explored beyond the paths of a usual visitor and were able to view the enormous particle accelerators and control centres on campus. They attended lectures where they explored the way CERN is investigating our universe and they learnt about the enormous impact that the work at CERN has on medical advances. 
 
The whole trip helped to reinforce the important role of STEM subjects in how we move forwards as an entire race. And emphasised how crucial our efforts are in Gomer, to encourage Junior School pupils to aspire to careers and a greater understanding in STEM. 
 
Both have come back to school eager to integrate their experience into our unique gSTEM curriculum. So soon, when your children come home telling you that they have been detecting cosmic particles and that it matters that they know about anti-matter, please be thrilled and enthused that your children are truly experiencing a forward thinking education!
19th April 2018
Category: Whole School