The annual visit from Immersive Theatres is always highly anticipated in our school by staff and…read morechildren alike. We started many years ago, using the dome to supplement our topic on Space with our Year 5 pupils. These sessions are fantastic. Mario starts with a unique, relevant introduction to the night's sky. He is adaptive and knowledgeable; when a child asks a question he brings up visuals and explains the Science or History in appropriate detail before seamlessly linking back to the previous topic. In the past two years we have developed the programme brought to our school; including Reception aged children, GCSE pupils and even staff. Mario has proved himself capable of adapting his talk to be relevant to the age of the participants and answering questions on a level they will understand. Our Reception girls enjoyed an overview of the night's sky, visited the International Space Station and learned about shapes and distances in space. My daughter was one of the participants and came home thoroughly enthused and full of wonder. From a child who normally tells me school is 'fine' and tells me more about the food she ate than her lessons it was wonderful to hear about the favorite room of the astronauts and the description of how astronauts sleep in space. Our Year 5 girls were excited to enter the dome, exclaimed in wonder as the 'roof' of the planetarium opened, gasped as the size of the ISS and giggled when we discussed toileting in space. Mario even managed to explain star death and black holes in enough detail to satisfy our inquisitive girls without overburdening them with technical language. They loved going through the black hole at the end too! GCSE Dance is probably not a group you would associate with enjoying a curriculum linked session in a planetarium but our girls are studying Fractals as part of their GCSE Dance coursework. They were able to enjoy 30 minutes of 360 degree fractals accompanied by a descriptive overview, explaining fractals. The girls found the session very inspiring and relevant to their course. As for the staff... we have to drag them out of the dome at the end of their sessions! Mario kindly suggested putting on a 'relaxation' session during the staff lunch hour. This allows us to take half an hour 'for us'. With the body and spirit rejuvenated after the session it certainly makes teaching that afternoon a little bit easier! Our Staff Wellbeing Committee was thrilled by the feedback from those who attended and have requested more sessions like this on Mario's future visits. As you can see, we made the most of our Immersive Theatre visits. I hope you do too.

From the owner: Immersive Theatres is a mobile digital planetariums service for all ages specialising in…read morecross-curricular learning, new media art, entertainment and exploration of the new 360 digital medium. We offer the largest catalogue of digital planetarium (fulldome) shows in the world, as well as presenter-led astronomy shows delivered by a team of engaging and experienced science communicators. Immersive Theatres utilises the very latest fulldome 360 projection technology, yet our prices are the most competative in the UK, and often lower than those of our competition eg. a school visit with our 7m dome works out to only £1.35 per student. We cover the entire UK and operate 24 hours a day, thanks to our dedicate presenters located all across the country who operate our five mobile digital planetariums.

Millfield Primary School is a close-knit community school in the heart of Fazeley in Tamworth…read more My stepson has attended there since pre-school, and has always had the best care. The teachers are all very kind, and the parents form a great community. Most of the football coaches and Cubs leaders in the Tamworth area are parents or teachers at Millfield. The best thing about the school is its community focus, doing events within the community and encouraging Tamworthians to be involved in its activities. My stepson has special needs, and when it was discovered that his educational needs were going to be more challenging than originally thought, the Headmaster approached us to plan out some goals and objectives, and to try and deal with my stepson's needs in the most caring way. Since 2005, he has had a government-funded special needs classroom assistant who works with him for 18 hours per week. His teachers always try hard to involve him as much as possible in "normal" classroom activities. They are very quick to stamp out any bullying, often calling school assemblies to discuss a particular type of bullying that may have occured. The special needs coordinator clearly loves her job, and cares very much about all the children she deals with. For a community school, this is a great one.

There's nothing like being woken up by the crowing of a cockerel and i'm lucky enough to have two…read moreat the rear of my garden. One of which is from the City farm located at the rear of our house and is amongst a number of animals that are part of this little urban anomaly. More than a novelty, some of the animals here are absolutely beautiful and seem to be in fine condition, serving as an example to any backyard enthusiast who has a couple of chickens of their own. The Farm also sees some larger animals such as goats and I will never forget seeing a bucking donkey sending a visiting group of school children into a hysterical frenzy. Balsall Heath Farm is part of the St. Pauls development and on the same site as the farm there is a community centre with kitchen, a football pitch and a childrens centre.