Research: External Evaluation of the Tim Peake Primary Project

Research summary

• October 2017 to January 2018

The Tim Peake Primary Project (TPPP), which ran in 1,400 UK primary schools, used Peake’s Principia mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to promote space as a cross-curricular context for teaching science, literacy and numeracy. 

Delivered by the European Space Education Resource Office in the UK (ESERO-UK), and funded by the UK Space Agency and the Department for Education, with further support from the European Space Agency, the project delivered continuing professional development (CPD), resources and support from specially trained Space Ambassadors (SA) to teachers.

The evaluation had two key objectives, namely to:

• Assess the longer-term impact of schools’ engagement in the programme on teachers, pupils and schools, particularly to what extent the short-term impact (as presented in the internal evaluation) has been sustained.
• Assess the efficiency of the project delivery model and provide recommendations on how to improve management, delivery and impact of the programme, especially if adopted for other similar projects or programmes.

It involved surveys with teachers, follow-up telephone interviews and case studies. The evaluation found that using space as a context for teaching and learning directly increased pupils’ enjoyment and engagement in science, numeracy and literacy; increased pupil attainment in science; and increased teachers’ confidence in teaching space-related topics.