Kathy Schofield, 50, was a research chemist with ICI but now works at St Edward’s Catholic primary school in Runcorn, a school with just 99 pupils situated in a regeneration area. “If you can make science hands-on and relate it to everyday life, children will respond. You have to love what you’re doing and not panic if it goes wrong. I tell the children there’s no right or wrong in science. If things go wrong, you look at why they went wrong.”

Winning lesson Using pilot materials from the primary science enhancement programme run by York University, she had Years 3 and 4 testing different types of toothpastes for smell, look, colour, cleaning power and stickability. “To test how well they cleaned we used permanent marker on a bathroom tile.

They all got it off, but baking soda was the best - I’m not sure how good it is for teeth though.”