Space Advocates

What we're looking for

The National Space Academy, with funding from the UK Space Agency, is expanding its provision of high-quality, curriculum-focused secondary school interventions to remove barriers to opportunity and deliver programmes to schools with a high number of disadvantaged students free-of-charge.

To do this, we are recruiting 30 current outstanding teachers of science from across the UK to become ‘Space Advocates’. Successful applicants will be seconded to the project to and deliver half-day and full-day masterclasses, with a heavy focus on physics, to schools in their regions. Masterclasses highlight the science, scope and possibilities within the UK space industry. In return they will receive high quality CPD and a fantastic package of kit. The school will be paid for their time.

Space Advocates (and their schools/colleges) will be representing the National Space Academy, UK Space Agency and UK Space Sector at a regional and national level.

We are subsidising Space Advocate time to allow for the training up of the whole department on the classroom activities, kit and background information to allow you to bring these exciting activities to your own students at no cost, with access to one-of-a-kind artefacts to enhance the experience.

Pay for the school and Role-Share potential

We understand that releasing an outstanding teacher will be difficult for some schools, and so we are offering a competitive payment for schools to make this as easy as possible for you. Your school will receive £15 000, paid in termly instalments over 6 terms to facilitate cover or perhaps to go towards a new science teaching role at the school. In addition, we shall consider a ‘role-share’ scenario where a physics specialist and a non-physics specialist share the role, reducing the impact on any one particular subject and building physics knowledge for the non-specialist teacher.

High-quality and unique teaching resources

Your Space Advocate will be supplied with a kit of equipment and artifacts worth £3000 to use in Space to Learn masterclasses that can also be freely used within your own school. This includes an infrared camera, high altitude flight helmets, compressed air rocket launcher and everything needed to deliver the sessions. Masterclasses are pre-planned and all resources including PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, background and careers information will be provided and can be used without limit by your school.

A core part of the UK’s National Skills Strategy

This project is being developed to implement a core part of the UK’s National Space Skills Strategy, which aligns closely to the current OFSTED skills foci. Involvement in this project is an excellent opportunity for publicity for your institution, and a strong highlight for your OFSTED preparations.

Project Timeline

In addition

Approximately 50% of students within your own school to participate in a half day (approx. 2 hours) masterclass delivered by the Space Advocate and their science teaching colleagues at your institution. This can be split over 2 lessons and customised to fit in with your existing scheme of work as you see fit.