Forensics Day

Teachers are keen to share their expertise, sometimes in a rather unexpected way! If you had been at JAGS on 3 July 2007, you might have been a witness to a ‘murder', (the first, to our knowledge, on the school site) and questioned by PC Lambert, our Community Police Liaison Officer. The Forensics Day linked more than 200 Year 9s from JAGS and St Saviour''s and St Olave's, and taught them the basic skills they needed to solve the ‘crime'. With and without government funding, state and independent schools are working together in a hugely successful and inspiring way.

Head of Biology, Mr Wesson explained: "The idea is to get schools working together, to give pupils a different experience of learning and to get them excited about science." On the day, half of our Year 9s and science teachers swapped places with those at St Saviour's and St Olave's, arriving to find four murder crime scenes at each school. They might have been surprised to discover that all their staff were suspects, but if they were they didn't show it! Roles were assigned in chemical analysis, plan drawing and collecting evidence. Then, summoning all their expertise from watching CSI on TV, the pupils interrogated their suspects and declared their convictions. Who dunnit? Shamefully it was our innocent-looking Mr Hicklenton who was cautioned, arrested and charged, having left his foot prints and fingerprints for all sharp-eyed forensic scientists to see.

The pupils to whom I spoke loved their day at St Saviour's. After a few ‘scary' moments while the teams were mixed, they settled into their new roles and got on really well with their partners, some of them even exchanging email addresses.

What an inspired way to end the term! Pupils from Year 9 visited those in other schools, had hands-on experiences of forensic techniques and began to see how important science is in the world of crime. Other partnerships are planned with different year groups from Walworth School and Geoffery Chaucer giving similarly fresh approaches to language learning.