Junior Science Competition 2017

Forest School’s Junior Science Competition took place on Wednesday 22 February 2017.

The annual competition involves year six pupils from over 20 local preparatory and primary schools taking part in three science-based challenges.

In the first task, pupils had to identify the different nutrients present in food and see whether saliva caused the foods to break down into new substances, while in task two the pupils had to carry out flame tests and precipitation reactions to see what chemicals Fred and George needed to use to create the right coloured fireworks.

Finally, in task three pupils had to carry out a number of physics calculations to work out how many coins had been left in a mysterious bag.

This year, Forest School’s year six pupils came first, which was the first time in nearly 10 years the School has won the competition. Oakdale Junior School and Gatehouse School followed in second and third place, respectively.

Forest year six pupil Alyssa said: ‘We enjoyed doing the physics challenge. We had to estimate how much money was in a bin liner using our past measurements, and then work out a precise amount,’ while Caleb added all the experiments had been ‘a lot of fun’.

Juliet added ‘the whole event had been amazing’ with Oran saying ‘We felt we had benefited a lot from it and learned a lot. Much to our surprise, we won and were very, very happy’

Pupils from Oakdale Junior School added they were ‘very pleased’ to have come second.

Following the experiments, the pupils gathered in Forest’s Dining Hall for the annual chemistry show, put on by science teacher Florence Grace.

This year, the schools taking part included Calverton Primary School, Chase Lane Primary School, Chingford C of E Primary School, Coopersale Hall School, Daiglen School, Fairlop Primary School, Gatehouse School, Grangewood Independent School, Millfields Community School, Oakdale Junior School, Oakhill Primary School, Redbridge Primary School, St Aubyn’s School, Thorpe Hall Primary School, Wells Primary School, Woodford Green Prep School and Yardley Primary School.