Kids can experience space! (From Thurrock Gazette)
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Kids can experience space!
3:20pm Wednesday 15th August 2012 in News
Ken and Jane Lewis
GOING to a space camp might be something of dreams, but it’s a reality for dozens of pupils from a Stanford-le-Hope secondary school.
Ken Lewis, 59, from Langdon Hills, used to work at St Clere’s School and had the brainwave of taking talented pupils to a space camp 12 years ago after an American astronaut visited the school.
Since then the Butts Lane school has taken more than 250 pupils to the Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, for the once in a lifetime experience – more than any other school in the UK. Mr Lewis ended up setting up his own company with wife Jane, 57, called Gifted Tours.
Mr Lewis, who is also UK ambassador for the centre, said: “The trip is amazing, something children remember forever.”
Nichola Denniss, head of maths at St Clere’s, said: “Our annual visit to space camp is an educational experience that is also great fun. It raises our students’ aspirations and makes them appreciate and value the work they carry out in school.”
Pupils at the Harris Academy in Chafford Hundred have also visited for the seven years. Log on to www.giftedtours.co.uk
