Aylesbury school's education programme is showcased in national charity's magazine

A school in Aylesbury was recently featured in a magazine published by a national science charity.

Aylesbury High School’s Science and Humanities outreach programme, has been featured in the latest edition of the Genetics Society Magazine.

The Aylesbury Vale Youth For Christ charity which is affiliated with school played an active role in the programme.

Sam Mckee, the charity’s director, working with learned societies, including the Genetics Society and the Mars Society, put together project.

AHS headmistress Marieke Forster said “We are totally delighted to host this programme, and thank Sam and our Physics Head of Department, Jane Brittain, for making this possible. These lectures are very well attended, rightly so, and are always of an extremely high calibre. For aspiring students across the Vale, they help make high level scientific careers more attainable, and I hope that we can long continue this relationship.”

Three geneticists hosted talks at the Aylesbury school in the past school year, discussing their research and careers to more than 8,000 students in nine Aylesbury schools.

Mr McKee launched the program at AHS in October 2022, inviting speakers into AHS during the school day.

After students from a number of schools attended science clubs. Mr McKee launched the program at AHS in October 2022, inviting speakers into AHS during the school day, AHS says.

The school reports that speakers were impressed with students’ enthusiasm, insight, and forward-thinking questions.

Mr McKee said: “I am totally blown away by this wonderful write up by The Genetics Society in their new quarterly publication. It names the school and calls the program “a beacon of best practice for schools’ outreach” in the sciences. To receive this warm praise from a major science body with such large reach is stunning. Thank you again for your faith last year and hard work in making this happen.”

The Genetics Society is a registered charity which has existed for over 100 years. Each year the society holds lectures and discusses methods of teaching the sciences. It releases a magazine twice-per-year to over 2,000 global members.