“Dr Gareth Francis has been contracted on a year by year basis to run the Dow Barry Site British Science Week workshop for local primary schools since 2014 (exception of covid years)
These workshops are well organised, and the invited schools enjoy the activities and sessions.
Dr Francis is an engaging facilitator of science and shares his knowledge with great enthusiasm, making the sessions fun yet educational.
The bath bomb science workshops are a highly anticipated part of the annual programme of activities.”
“I have employed Dr Gareth as a part time Contractor for approximately 3 years. He delivers engaging, informative and safe Science lessons to small groups of children and teenagers with an emphasis on chemical reactions, electricity and magnetic activities. Although our workshops are not GCSE lessons as such, my remit for the lesson plan is that it does cover elements of the Science topics required by the national curriculum.
Gareth’s workshops are always popular with our students as he recreates a laboratory environment using his own equipment, complete with a white coat, which really brings the Science experiments to life.
I would not hesitate to recommend Gareth to any future employers and have always found him to be professional, reliable and great with the kids and teenagers – some of which are neuro diverse and/or special educational needs (SEND).
“
And some more testimonials from some of the schools we have visited:
“It was so cool” (about launching a rocket experiment)
“Wow, that’s fun” (rainbow experiment)
“My favourite was a rocket thing.”
“It was really fun, the telescope was great.”
“It was really exciting, my favourite activity was a solar panel experiment. It made lots of noise on the sunlight.”
“The water rocket went down incredibly well with all pupils and they have been talking about it for long after the workshop!
Thank you again to yourself and Gareth for organising the workshops – they were brilliant!”
May 2019
‘Wow what a fantastic day! Electricity is usually an abstract idea, but with Dr Gareth the concept of electricity really comes to life! A great day, delivered by a great Educator! Diolch”
May 2019
“Dr Francis was absolutely amazing, he took the children’s questions and answered them in engaging and understandable ways. The activities allowed the children to really investigate light, while developing an understanding of how light works. Thank you!”
February 2019
“The ‘Sensory Science’ workshops were great. The feedback from all teachers was fantastic. The level of different activities was well thought of and perfect for different groups of our pupils and they had much fun on the day. We all enjoyed it very much. Thank you very much again.“
May 2019
“Thank you so much to Gareth for coming in! The feedback from staff and pupils has been really positive and we were so impressed with the thought, preparation and effort that went into the workshops.
One teacher emailed me to say: “my kids loved the science workshop and were really focused and engaged”
Can I just say a huge thank you to Gareth and your team for our workshop on Tuesday. All the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed the day and the assembly at the end of the day sent the children home buzzing with excitement! Thank you again.”
“We really enjoyed having Gareth in, and the children all loved the sessions.
Dr. Gareth’s eco-electricity sessions were excellent. He was very knowledgeable of the topic involved, and brought enough equipment so that every child could get hands-on with the science. Thank you very much!”
“The children and staff thoroughly enjoyed their time with Dr Gareth. He really brought Science to life for them and deepened their appreciation of its role in their lives. October 2018.”
Space, Stars and the Universe workshop
“Year 2 loved their Space workshop with Dr. Francis. They were fascinated by the facts they learned and have used their experience to help them write a space narrative in English!
Click the link below to view our website which has some photos and videos from the day”
Rocks, minerals and fossils workshop
“Many thanks for all your hard work On Tuesday. Yet again you blew us away with all your enthusiasm and range of activities for the children to learn from and join in with. I know that all the staff who worked with you really enjoyed the session and the children were completely absorbed and buzzing from the workshop.
Sensory Science Workshop
Please thank Gareth for coming to spend time with us! We have had excellent feedback from all the staff and students. There was a fantastic array of things to do and see, suitable for all levels of ability in our school. It’s also given us plenty of ideas for new things to try in our classrooms! (Some people are already planning on making air cannons)
We very much look forward to another visit from Gareth in the future!
Thank you Gareth for a fantastic party, you squeezed in so much and the kids all loved it. You managed to engage with an extremely lively and excited group of 7/8 year old boys and many of their mums have sent me messages to say how much their sons enjoyed the party. Thank you again.
‘I just wanted to say thank you for a fantastic day of Light and Electricity Dr Gareth! All of the children loved it and learnt a great deal about the topic. The workshop was engaging, fun and informative – the perfect combination! Many thanks again, we will certainly be recommending you to other people.’
“Gareth was absolutely brilliant, dashing around, keeping fifteen 6/7 year olds entertained for nearly three hours! The science was non-stop, and the kids had a fantastic time (and maybe even learned a little something along the way). I’d highly recommend Working Science! Thanks!”
On behalf of all of Year 4, we would like to say thank you for an amazing [Sounds & Vibrations] day. The children and adults really enjoyed it. They will definitely remember many things they learnt.
We had Gareth visit us and bring along his equipment for the workshop “Getting into Space”.
The children had a wonderful time, Gareth came prepared with many demonstrations and videos to explain about the subject and was eager to answer all the questions the children had. Which was good, as our classes were full of questions. The astronaut ice cream was a lovely touch to end the session too. Thank you for your hard work.
Wow! What a fantastic day.
All the children really enjoyed their hands on [Bubble-bath & Bath-bombs] experience and Gareth captured their enthusiasm. All the adults loved the aroma that floated around the school. We will definitely have you back!!
Thank you for the wonderful [Getting into Space] workshop.
The [Changing States] workshop last week was fantastic and exactly what we were looking for. The children were engaged, had fun and learnt a lot. In fact one parent was speaking to me about it yesterday and said that her son did not stop talking about it all night.
“The whole school was buzzing after the interactive assembly taster of science fun. It was so lovely that all the year groups got the opportunity to see some science in action. It really got all the kids thinking from the very youngest reception child, who literally couldn’t contain himself with the excitement at the smoke gun! The eco-electricity session for our year 5/6 children was fantastic and I was so impressed with all the resources you provided. The children got really inspired and interested about green energy and have seen it as one of the highlights of Science this year.”
THANK YOU so much for the fabulous [Eco-Electricity and Sounds & Vibration] workshops that Dr Gareth delivered. We all totally loved them and it was an incredible opportunity for our pupils to see and handle equipment/resources that we simply cannot provide for them.
It was a great day. We would hope to book again for the next year.
We very much enjoyed our talk on Eco Electricity and the children found the hands on approach exciting. The materials used were fantastic and everyone loved making a battery with a lemon and a potato. It tied into our topic on electricity very nicely.
Just wanted to say a huge thank you! The children and staff thoroughly enjoyed the perfume workshops and the assembly was a great success too. We’ll be using you again.
Things the children learnt about…
We learnt about worm holes and black holes.
We learnt about planets and the different gravity on planets.
We learnt that stars have a life cycle and about red giants.Memorable Moments
I liked it when we saw the dry ice. The frozen oranges were cool!
I found the gravity experiment really interesting. I liked it when the balls moved around showing us how things orbit.