Historically, the courses have been run at various specialist education centres throughout the south west of England, covering a wide range of topics:

ART MEETS SCIENCE

ASTRONOMY & SPACE

AVIATION

ELECTRONICS WITH SCALEXTRIC

RADIO COMMUNICATIONS

ROCKET SCIENCE

SPYING AND CODE BREAKING

Now to make the subjects accessible to everyone, I am offering one-day sessions in the locality, at the Ham Hill Visitor Centre:

Ages 7 - 11 years old

We start with practicing the Phonetic Alphabet so everyone can talk like a secret agent; then explore the history of coded messages and the different methods used to send them.

After lunch, we visit the World War II and Cold War eras, meeting some real spy radios we have brought with us, that last saw action when they were parachuted behind enemy lines for real over seventy years ago!

Towards the end of the day, you'll shift back into the 21st Century and use some of the latest spying equipment available to bug the Ranger's office and listen in to their conversation!

Ages 7 - 11 years old

With Leonardo Helicopters and RNAS Yeovilton in the locality, the topic of flying is very close to home!

This exciting workshop explores how we have progressed from the Wright Brothers’ early escapades to stealth bombers and Jumbo Jets.

Sessions covering physics and the laws of aerodynamics are reinforced by practical experience on a flight simulator.  We will also be operating our own Air Traffic Control, monitoring local flights by RADAR and listening in to the communications of aircraft flying over the area – maybe we will hear a Navy pilot coming in to land at Yeovilton or helicopters on a test flight around the Westlands Airfield.

Copyright Adrian Dening 2025