Ways to share your GSSfS 2024! — The Great Science Share for Schools

When pupils have asked and investigated their scientific questions, it’s time to share!

Sharing is all about pupils having the chance to talk about their science with another person, preferably someone else their own age.
Sharing is a fundamental part of a Great Science Share for Schools; sharing should be at the heart of your GSSfS experience.

Shares can be big or small. Here we explore some ways your pupils can share their science.

Learn more about Sharing

Why share?

The Great Science Share for Schools gives pupils the opportunity to:

Communicate their questions and findings with each others and talk about the approach they took to answer their scientific question.
Explain how their enquiry makes a difference to science in their lives, home, school or across the world.
Ask questions to others.

Taking part helps to support key skills and knowledge in science learning including: developing scientific vocabulary, encouraging pupils to explain their thinking, guiding pupils to work scientifically and relating learning to relevant, real world contexts (key areas identified in the Ofsted Research review, Ofsted Finding The Optimum: Science Subject Report and EEF: Improving Primary Science Report.)

What is a Share?

A Great Science Share is:

• anything where 2 or more pupils come together to show their enquiry to other people.

• No limits to the amount of people who can take part.

• No defined time it should last for.

• For most of us, it’ll take place on Tuesday 11th June!

• Keep it simple.

• a celebratory activity.

How can pupils share?

There are so many different ways to share! It can be as small as sharing in groups in your classroom, or pupils can take part in a larger event.
Here are some ideas:

Write a blog
Share in a newsletter
Make a video
Do a dance, perform a play
Write some poetry
Design a poster or create some Art

Science fair
Playground busking
Classroom carousel
Pop-up school science museum
Share on social media (tag us in @greatscishare)
Assembly

We also have some share prompts to help pupils think about how and where they might share their science.

Sharing events

If this is your first year taking part in The Great Science Share for Schools, maybe you’d like to start small, or even join in with an organised event.
Or maybe you’re ready to start building your share and dreaming big!

Children could share:

In class
In school
Invite parents
Invite the community
Link with cluster schools
Involve feeder secondary school
Take it wider…
Attend an organised event
Organise your own!

“Our Science Share is when we bring our cluster of schools together. We put tables out in the school hall or on the playground in good weather. Children from each school bring the equipment and put it on the table. The activities are repeatable and children talk about their enquiry and what they’ve found. They also get inspired by so many other children sharing theirs! It’s just great!”

— Nicola Potts, Head teacher, Salford

Other Ways to Share

This year sees the return of the Great Poetry Share, with three new bespoke videos created by poet, Chad Campbell, which are ideal stimuli for pupils to share their science in a creative way (in 2021 we also had the Great Science Groovealong!).
Poetry prompts include ‘The Time Capsule’ (5-7 years), ‘Care Instructions’ (7-11 years) and ‘Giving a Voice’ (11-14 years).