Mad Science Saturday 2023
On Saturday 4 February 2023, we hosted our annual event Mad Science Saturday. Fifty three boys and girls from 15 different primary schools across Swale attended Highsted to take part in interactive science workshops. The morning started with children learning about the adaptations of animals and plants. Getting up close to the third largest species of tortoise in the world, the Sulcata and comparing this to the much smaller species of the pancake tortoise, a hatchling just over the size of a 50p piece.
African clawed frogs, musk turtles as well as ferrets were among the species they encountered. 
Children took on the roles of Biologists, Chemists and Physicists, as they created slides toview materials underneath a microscope; tested household products to determine if they were an acid or alkali; as well as making rainbow density tubes. Our yound scientists enjoyed learning about new things, meeting new people and the scientific techniques they had mastered during the day. The Year 5 children who attended strongly recommend Highsted’s Mad Science Saturday to future Year 5 children.
Oscar WS from Bredgar C of E Primary School and Anyinke A from Westlands Primary School
Maths in Action: University of Greenwich
On Monday 11th July, ten students from Year 10 took part in ‘Maths in Action’ at University of Greenwich, Medway Campus. They participated in three hands-on workshops throughout the day and attended an inspirational talk by Dr Jackie Bell, a mathematician and a competitor in BBC 2 series ‘Astronauts – do you have what it takes?’
One of the workshops involved designing and building a bridge using sticks, string and paper. Students were challenged with the goal to build a bridge that could hold the highest mass. The two Highsted teams came first and second in this challenge, using their knowledge of geometry and tension to create strong, stable designs. Other workshops included exploring notations to record strategies for juggling, and using surveying equipment and trigonometry to measure heights.
London & South East Maths Tournament
On 13th July, a team of students from Year 10 competed in a London and South East Maths Team Tournament. Throughout the competition, the students improved round by round, strengthening their confidence and communication skills as they progressed; as well as achieving full marks in several of the challenges.
The team worked through four challenging rounds, including abstract problems not typically seen in GCSE questions. They showed excellent strategies when solving problems and combined their knowledge of different topics in unusual contexts. There was tough competition and students achieved a strong result overall, for which they should be justly proud – well done!
Mathletics 2022
On Wednesday 8 June, 65 children from six different primary schools came to Highsted for Year 5 Mathletics. The pupils arranged themselves into teams of five and competed in four different activities using their mathematical knowledge, problem solving skills and team work. To download a report of this inter-school activity day, please follow this link.
Number Day 2022
On Friday 4 February, Highsted Grammar School took part in NSPCC Number Day. Eighteen members of staff proudly wore numbers for the day and the students engaged in a hunt around the school to find them. They had to then fit their teachers into different categories, much to their delight. Students were looking for ‘teachers in their prime,’ ‘irrational teachers’ and staff who were just a just a figment of their imagination. All who were involved found it fun and engaging.
Lunch time saw some Highsted students tearing across the playground asking every member of staff they saw, “What’s your number?” The race to fill in their forms was on to make sure that they had all of the categories correct. To add to the pressure, they had a bonus task of spotting who fitted in to more than one category. It was great to see students enjoy this activity and learn about numbers that they otherwise wouldn’t until A-level. The winning forms were 7.5, 8.5 and 9.1 and the year winners were as follows:
Emilia C (Year 7) Emily C (Year 7) Jessica R (Year 7) Olivia G (Year 7)
Rachel N (Year 7) Amelia A (Year 8) Amelia H (Year 9)
Amelia A was the overall winner. She not only collected all of the numbers but scored full marks filling in the categories. Well done to all who took part!
Mad Science Saturday 2022!
Saturday 5 February saw Highsted Grammar School host its annual STEM activity, Mad Science Saturday 2022. The event was a morning of fun-filled, engaging scientific experiments aimed at inspiring Year 5 girls and boys in the Swale community to be enthralled with Science! Nineteen primary schools from Swale were represented, taking advantage of this fantastic opportunity.
The themed event centred around the fascinating world of water: from creating coloured rainbow density test tubes, to chromatography, children explored first hand the great properties of water. Three additional workshops enhanced childrens knowledge across Biology,
Chemistry and Physics through teacher demonstrations
Children marvelled at the static electricity activities which included the use of the Van de Graaff generator, wowed at the flammable properties of methane and aahed at the Africa clawed frogs watching them feed, while using keys to identify prey species.
Joel from Iwade said “I enjoyed the water tricks,” while Jolie from St Peters Primary School stated, “I enjoyed the fact we made things and were involved, and I especially liked the electricity. It was awesome!”=
Discovery Park Trip – Year 7
On Friday 13 March, Year 7 students from Highsted visited the Discovery Park in Sandwich. On the day students had the freedom to explore many different stalls and talk to experts about a range of science-based topics. They were able to get involved in a plethora of activities from making their own balloon shapes to experiencing virtual reality. One talk ‘Yummy or Yucky’, gave students the opportunity to try bugs; there were also talks on wind turbines and forensics. The latter part of the day included a talk on ‘How to be a Science Hero.’
The day was a great success and all enjoyed their trip.
Highsted Enters ‘Maths Feast 2020’
On Thursday 27 February, Highsted took eight Year 10 students to Maidstone to take part in the 2020 AMSP (Advanced Mathematics Support Programme) Year 10 Maths Feast Competition. It is a national competition which combines mathematical, communication and teamwork skills and offers students another way to express and develop their enjoyment of mathematics. Our students showed great enthusiasm and excellent teamwork throughout. The competition required students to apply skills they have learnt from their GCSE to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts.
Prizes were awarded for different categories and Highsted were delighted that each of their teams were awarded certificates of achievement. One award achieved was for ‘scoring highly in all rounds’ and the other award was for ‘winning Round Three’. Round Three was a comprehension round where students had time to study a poster on an unfamiliar topic and were given time to answer questions using that information. The students excelled at their communication skills and presenting their answers with rigorous mathematical reasoning. We would like to congratulate Megan B, Elena I, Ruby P, Harriet C, Ilana W, Rose R, Charlotte W and Caitlin A for their participation and achievements on the day.
Mad Science Saturday 2020
On Saturday 8 February, young scientists came to Highsted to join in a day of science activities. Fifty-five pupils from sixteen different primary schools took part in the day, which included watching some exciting demonstrations and competing in challenges.
The day was split into two halves. In the morning, there were four science demonstrations:
- the science behind a firework;
- reactive series of alkali metals;
- light; and
- types of reaction.
Following this, the pupils had a chance to get involved in a series of tasks such as viewing animal specimens, pH testing, maggot racing, graphite circuits, fruit DNA and looking at onion skin under a microscope.
All our guests thoroughly enjoyed their day and were given a reusable water bottle as a souvenir of the event. Some of their comments included, “I enjoyed the gases and all the metals that made sparks!” and, “I really enjoyed looking at the onion cell, it was fun to see how onions had cells as well as us.”
Mathematical Art
Year 10 produced some amazing images as part of a graphing competition that they took part in. This year saw the first launch of ‘Maths Week England’ and to celebrate, Highsted arranged for Year 10 students to take part in a national competition ran by Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI). Students spent a lesson discovering graphs and producing original artwork using the graphing website www.desmos.com.
The effort and enthusiasm of students was amazing and we have decided to award prizes in school to Elena I for her Pizza Party picture and to Charlotte W for her intricate design of a necklace.
On Saturday 3 February Highsted held it largest ever Mad Science Saturday event. One hundred and eighteen girls and and boys from across 21 local primary schools attended the school to become scientists for the day.
The teacher demonstrations were a great hit. Darasimi, from Westlands Primary shared with us, “The lab where there were fireworks,” as being the most enjoyable thing about the day; while many others, including Olivia from Hernehill and Rhoda from Tunstall, enjoyed “Everything!” about the day.
We look forward to next year’s event which will be open to Year 5 girls and boys in the academic year 2024-25.