A SCIENCE festival at a County Durham special school was dedicated to world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who has been a source of inspiration for pupils.

Evergreen Primary School, in Bishop Auckland, hosted their celebration of the discipline on Thursday, March 15, in honour following news of the professor’s death on Wednesday.

Held to coincide with British Science Week, which runs until Sunday, the festival tied in with the national theme of ‘exploration and discovery’ and the school’s term topic ‘all creatures great and small’.

Faye James, assistant headteacher, said: “He (Stephen Hawking) was a real inspiration to the world but especially to our children, to prove that you can achieve no matter what your disability or barriers are.

"The staff do a great job coming together to prepare everything with the children to allow it (the festival) all to happen.

"It enriches the learning and science for the children.”

At the festival was a range of activities, showcases, experiments and ‘science detective’ investigations including fossil digs by pupils at the school.

There was also a giant mechanical Tyrannosaurus-Rex, called Rex, and baby mechanical dinosaur puppets, courtesy of Big Foot Events.

“They did some visits (with the puppets) to some of the classes that would find it difficult to access the fair for a long period and that went down really well,” added Ms James.

The school also played host to five birds of prey, a range of exotic animals in a discovery zoo including a snake, tarantula, a giant millipede and a scorpion, and its own newly hatched ‘living egg’ chicks.

About 100 parents attended the festival, which has been held annually for eight years and involves all 180 pupils for the duration of the whole morning.