Lord Winston inspires with talk at Oswestry school education festival - video

The Marches School welcomed Lord Robert Winston to its Festival of Education yesterday.

The pioneering surgeon and scientist worked on groundbreaking fertility treatment in the 1970s and shared his achievements with the students.

Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell also dropped in to teach the students as part of the festival.

During his career Lord Winston developed improvements to IVF treatment and pre-implantation diagnoses, which allowed embryos to be screened for genetic diseases.

He is also a TV presenter, Lord Winston sits as part of the Labour Party in the House of Lords often talking on education and science topics, and has won numerous awards for his work.

Speaking at the festival, Lord Winston said: “I haven’t seen much of the school but it is a fantastic and important event for academic scientists. It is great to meet students and answer questions on my career. Hopefully the young people will be influenced by what they have learned and heard.”

Despite having a long and successful career in science, Lord Winston said: “I put a lot of it down to luck.”

He was just one of a string of high-profile names that were attracted to this year’s festival.

Executive headteacher Sarah Longville was delighted with the line-up and the work the staff and students had done to make the event a success.

She added: “It is bigger and better than last year, and is a special experience with some renowned speakers, and it is fantastic we can attract them here.

“It is all about the children, sometimes it is too much about league tables, but it should be about the children having fun, enjoyment, and learning from different people.”

“The children here are fantastic and have done a wonderful job today.”

Business people and teachers came to the school from across the county and the country to hear from different speakers, one being keynote speaker was Andy Buck who has set up two educational leadership organisations. He praised the event and the work put in to attract speakers and teachers from all over the country.

He said: “This part of the world is very rural, and sometimes cut off but an event like this helps for everyone to learn from each other.

“For events like this you would usually have to travel, but is a local opportunity for teachers and students, but for others to come in and see what is done here.”

Mr Buck, who spoke for an hour on leadership, set up the organisations along with #honk, which provides teachers will all sorts of content and tools for learning.

He added: “In a time when budgets are stretched, this content is a great way for teachers to get free tools to help with their lessons and learning.”

Former British Olympic sprinter Darren Campbell MBE spoke to students about his rise in sport, and explained to them that anything is possible.

Darren, who won gold in the 4x100 metre relay in Athens in 2004, said: “It is so important for me to be able to come and give something back, I think if I had the chance to do something like this and listen to an athlete I would maybe have had success sooner.”

“Bringing my medals helps to inspire people, and I explain to them don’t be afraid to dream big.

“Looking back my dream at 12 to become Olympic champion was stupid, but I believed it and it happened.

“The event itself is unbelievable, how people achieve is by learning from each other and sharing success, which is what today is about.

“No one ever achieved anything on their own.”

Mrs Longville has already been looking ahead to next year, and the dream speakers would be Brian Cox and David Walliams.