A DARTFORD school hosted a science fair for around 1,600 pupils from 28 primary and secondary schools.

Youngsters aged between nine and 12 took part in one of the six 90-minute practical sessions held at the Dartford Grammar School for Girls, in Shepherds Lane, on Thursday and Friday.

Each session involved 300 visitors and 50 Dartford Grammar School student demonstrators.

Hundreds took part in a Balloon Hovercraft challenge inspired by this year’s National Science week theme of Inventions and Discoveries.

An inter-school competition involved schools coming up with their own unique invention.

Other science-based activities on offer ranged from flying paper aeroplanes at up to 70 miles per hour to a ‘black-out’ zone of games in the dark.

Assistant headteacher Carol Williams said: "Who says science and technology can’t be fun?

"The ‘buzz’ had to be seen to be believed. Schools are coached in from all over north Kent and the feedback from students attending was fantastic."

Organisations involved in the annual event included the British Model Flying Association, the Acorn Clinic, Medway school of Pharmacy, University of Greenwich and the school of Physical Sciences at the University of Kent.