SCIENCE Day at a Monmouthshire primary school was given a flying start with an amazing talk from Martha Holmes, Executive Producer of The Blue Planet and Life series on the BBC.

Martha enthralled the children of St John’s on-the-Hill School with her first-hand experience of the incredible and sometimes dangerous work that goes on behind the scenes during the filming of these programmes.

Such experiences as spending three weeks in a tree to film baboons, being bitten all over by mosquitoes in the Antarctic, to a helicopter mission flying over alligator infested waters with sudden engine failure!

The children, dressed as scientists, went on to a range of exciting activities taking place throughout the school. Every department focused on a science activity and were very creative with their ideas. The children had fun with petri dish art. In music the science led to handmade pan pipes, while in geography they measured wind speed and direction.

Visitors from The Blood Hound Project, a global engineering adventure, using a 1,000mph World Land Speed Record attempt, gave an engineering workshop. The children were fascinated by the model cars and their land speed records. Spaghetti stem bridges were made and tested as were paper aeroplanes and latex balls.

The dissection of organs really intrigued the pupils. Outside, pupils had an exciting treasure hunt with QR codes and readers while another group looked at the effects of exercise on their bodies.

Ruth Frett, Head of St John’s on-the-Hill, said: “We had a riveting visit from Martha Holmes, producer of Blue Planet and Life. Her stories of battling with snakes, alligators, sub-zero and tropical temperatures, not to mention protective mummy polar bears certainly held our pupils’ attention and was a great way to begin our wonderfully exciting Science Day.”