PRIMARY school teachers are going back to school to help them provide engaging science classes.

Durham University has become the first in the country to run a new training programme for primary school teachers on how to teach children about electricity.

The programme, run in partnership with The Ogden Trust, a charity dedicated to promoting the teaching and learning of physics, includes hands-on workshops and a teaching toolkit for teachers to use in their own schools.

More than 60 teachers from across the North-East took part in the first workshops last week.

Dr Lorraine Coghill, Ogden science outreach coordinator at Durham University’s physics department, said: “It is part of our mission at Durham University to not only deliver the most engaging science teaching and learning ourselves, but to enable the many fantastic educators working in our local schools to do their bit too.”

“Teaching science well in primary schools, especially physics, is vital. Everyone is interested in science – it’s just that some children don’t know it yet. Hopefully, with the aid of this programme, we can inspire the inner scientist in more young people in County Durham and North East England.”