Crest Awards

This year saw the launch of the prestigious Crest Awards by the Science Department. These are a series of STEM based projects which are pupils led and highly respected by universities and employers. During Term 1, Key Stage 3 pupils made applications and a select few were chosen to embark on the CREST journey. The following pupils have completed their Bronze Award: Corey, Chi, Safiyyah, Amna, Tiara, Henry, Syed, Nuran and Rameen.

CREST was an amazing experience! It gave me the opportunity to explore other areas of science that I had not yet covered in school. I also learned to plan, organise, and carry out my own project. In addition to improving my responsibility and time management skills, the experience was enjoyable and exciting. I learned lots about how to carry out a fair test, explored different ways of completing my aims, researched, and experimented to understand more about plant growth. All of these were done in a supportive and positive environment. Furthermore, we are given an opportunity to present your work, which enhances your presentation skills.

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in science and wishes to explore other aspects of the subject - and especially to those who are interested in becoming scientists or engineers in the future - since it gives a glimpse into what it is like to be one or to use science in the real world. There’s a wide variety of options for your project that you can choose to experiment with, such as: space, plants, food, fingerprints and so much more! By Tiara, Year 9

Attaining the Crest Bronze Award during Term 1 has been an excellent experience. We spent the first few sessions deciding which experiment we wanted to choose and work on for the term. I chose the Bath Bomb project, where I had to experiment on making bath bombs and also discover more about what different ingredients do to potential bath bomb ‘recipes’. Once we had chosen our topics, we received our Crest Award workbooks. These workbooks consisted of all the steps and instructions of what we need to do in order to achieve the Bronze Award. I did my experiment at home and began by writing a list of ingredients which I then bought. My experiment started off by creating an existing bath bomb recipe, and then I moved on to experimenting with different ingredients and testing them out in my bathtub. My experiment took a total of three trials in order for me to reach my goals. We were then asked to create a presentation on how we worked on our experiments. Overall, my experience with working towards the Bronze Award has been great. I found working on my experiment fun and enjoyable, and I look forward to receiving my Bronze Award certificate soon. By Safiyyah, Year 8

Ms Sultana