Primary Pupils Solve Wellacre’s ‘Whodunnit?’

Posted at 9:03 am on 29th March, 2022

British Science Week CSI Challenge

Wellacre hosted a special CSI Challenge for local primary schools in March, in celebration of British Science Week. 

            

Year 5 pupils from St. Monica’s, Our Lady of the Rosary, Irlam Endowed, Woodhouse, Davyhulme and St. Michael’s primary schools attended the ‘crime scene’ to solve the mystery of the stolen House Trophy!

Pupils undertook a series of crime scene investigations to eliminate the suspects - Wellacre teachers Mrs Partridge, Mr Thomson and Mr Whitehead - from clues including a muddy shoe print, white powder splatter (flour, sherbet dip or wash powder!), fingerprints and a letter.

   

The scientific experiments saw pupils extracting DNA, comparing the chemical and physical properties of powders, lifting and analysing fingerprints, and using chromatography to separate the coloured pigments in pen ink. 

Well done to all the budding forensic scientists who successfully revealed the thief and returned Wellacre’s House Trophy to its rightful place - the Pankhurst trophy cabinet.

    

Teacher of Science, Mrs Siddall and Miss Ward, were ably assisted by Wellacre’s fantastic Wellacre's Year 9, 10 and 11 Science Ambassadors.  The students led all the experiments and assisted the primary pupils, explaining the science behind each result.  

   

Feedback for the event was extremely positive:

Davyhulme Primary School said:

“I just want to say a huge thank you for this afternoon; the children had a fantastic time and have loved telling me about it. The staff who accompanied them thought it was excellent too and we wanted to say a big thank you to the Wellacre boys who did the workshop with them - they did a fantastic job!”

    

Our Lady of the Rosary RC Primary School added:

“The staff and children had a great time and they all really enjoyed it.”

Mrs Sharrock, Principal, commented:

“It was a fantastic week and great to see so many of our primary colleagues and their pupils on site and so engaged in the CSI. The Wellacre Science Ambassadors were amazing and I really want to thank them, along with Mrs Siddall and Miss Ward, for their efforts. We are looking forward to seeing our local primary children over the summer term for more engaging learning experiences at Wellacre. Mr Thomson, our Director of Transition will be in touch!”