EXHIBITORS from a number of businesses and groups enthralled children at St Mary’s school Science and Engineering Fair.

They were given the opportunity to do anything from planting lettuce to rebuilding part of a jet engine at the fair on Saturday, February 28.

One of the most popular displays was put on by Bristol Zoo who brought a number of insects and spiders along with them to show-off.

A pop-up planetarium was also hired and installed in the school which proved a big hit amongst hundreds of visitors.

Children from schools across the region attended the event to get an insight into how the world works.

Selina Slater, part of the organising sub-committee and chairman of the school’s PTA, said: “We started organising the event over the summer last year and we contacted as many different organisations as we could.

“What we found was that they were all very happy to help with the event and some were disappointed they couldn’t make it.”

She added: “We (the PTA) wanted to do something different. The PTA of course organises the summer and Christmas fairs but we wanted to mix things up.

About £1,000 was raised at the event which will go to the PTA’s funds. Last year the PTA helped to refurbish St Mary’s Key Stage 2 library. So far this year they have helped purchase some iPads for pupils with special learning needs.

The planetarium featured three 30-minute-long films featuring topics from dinosaurs to space.

Leading up to the fair, classes at St Mary’s primary school put additional focus onto science and engineering during their lessons.

An invention competition, judged by Thornbury town mayor Guy Rawlinson, was held and each class produced a science experiment and a display for the fair.

Following the fair’s success, the PTA is now planning to hold another fair in February 2016.

Selina Slater said: “We’re looking at holding the next fair in a bigger community space, potentially Turnberrie’s because the school isn’t the biggest.

“A lot of the exhibitors said that they were keen to come back and get involved in the future and hopefully we can get more schools involved.