Moon rocks at St Richards

But then Dr Joolz Durling is not every science teacher - and this was the last day of Science Week at St Richard's catholic college which happened to coincide with Comic Relief.

Year 11 students raised 32.44 for Red Nose Day by throwing themselves into the Doctor Who theme which had been chosen as theme of the day.

The week included a number of activities such as Moonwatch 2009 which took place during the evenings and provided telescopes to star gaze through, and a visit from Professor Alan Davies from the Royal Astronomical Society to examine the physics of rainbows.

A highlight for Joolz was having lunar samples loaned to the school in the form of moon rocks and pieces from meteorites.

"They are priceless," she commented.

"For me it is just incredible that you can hold something in your hand that has been floating around the universe for perhaps millions of years.

"The moon rocks themselves are priceless. I believe the only place you can see them in this country is in the Space Museum in Leicester, and the Science Museum in London. Then there are educational sets transferred from school to school around the country, with huge amounts of security as you would expect.

"I just loved it...It is a real privilege."

An important part of Science Week was interaction with local primary schools and other secondary schools in the area, sharing information, entertainment and scientific experimentation.

"On Thursday afternoon I was invited to Chantry community primary school where we had a hands-on meteorites and moon rock session with the Year 6's in the amphitheatre. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we sat and talked about how the universe began. it was great.

"Science Week was amazing - the best ever."