Karen Hodgkinson, 30, has been science co-ordinator at Christchurch CE primary school in Stoke-on-Trent for two years. The school is linked to the British Association’s youth science arm, and is helping trial the use of puppets in science lessons for the Nuffield Curriculum Centre. “We’ll give it a go. If it doesn’t work, we won’t carry on, but that rarely happens.

It’s a way of getting children to communicate.

“The main puppet is a wizard, and another is a witch - anything to get children talking, and these do. They generate so much discussion, as do using whiteboards and voting pads. We use a lot of technology here.”

Winning lesson Examining micro-organisms by showing the power of yeast to blow up balloons. “If you believe in science and keep on about it, you’ll get there in the end.”