Café Sci’s success and growing popularity, combined with our very limited resources (less than two full-time members of staff!), means we can’t go on giving every school the level of hands-on support we offered during the pilot phase. Instead, we're asking teachers to take more responsibility for their Café, and giving them more freedom to adapt it to the individual needs of their school.
From now on, we’re asking teachers to source their own Café speakers and we’ll be adding new information to this site to help with that. The Stem Ambassador programme is a particularly good source of scientists who are willing to come in to schools, and we hope to introduce a direct link to them soon. You can of course use other scientists too, from local universities, hospitals, industry – even parents. By cutting out the middle-man (the Café Sci staff), we think it will be quicker and more straightforward for schools to find speakers.
We’re also removing the emphasis on student teams organising every aspect of their Café. The evaluation found that many teachers thought this could get in the way of running a successful Café. From now on, we’re leaving it up to individual teachers to decide how much to involve their students. We know this will vary from school to school, ranging from fully independent teams who do everything , to Cafés where the teacher does most of the preparation, at least in the early days of setting up their Cafe. As a minimum, students should be involved in the choice of topic.
The project team will still be around to answer queries and offer advice via phone and email. We’ll be in regular contact with schools to make sure we’re up-to-date with what’s going on. Keep an eye on the website, as more information will be posted here over the coming months.
We’re keen to know what you think of the new approach. Email Ann Grand, our Communications Manager, with your feedback ann.grand@juniorcafesci.org.uk
