East London Science School are past winners of the Scrub up on Science competition. Year 10’s Team Eclipse investigation of the effervescence of a bath bomb using different amounts of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda, plus their impressive knowledge and understanding of chemistry, saw off stiff competition from the other finalists in the fifth annual competition.

Team Eclipse is a group of four enthusiastic students who get together in the school lab at lunchtime. “I think we all have a feeling of relief and enjoyment at the same time,” they said on winning the competition. “It’s proof of our achievement over six months’ effort since our very first bathbomb, which was awful!”

Looking to their futures, Soraya is certain she wants to do something with chemistry, Sofia wants to be a doctor so definitely plans to pursue science and Maisy is considering chemistry as she loves the reactions, while Ahmet is set on becoming a lawyer.

Of course it is crucial to have enthusiastic teachers and it was their teacher Yanni Chatzi and her love of cosmetics and making her own that led them to Scrub up on Science . “I saw SUOS and thought they would definitely love it,” she said. “We’re going to need to find their successors for next year as they’ll be doing GCSEs.” And of course huge congratulations to all our other finalists. As Robin Parker, former SCS President and architect of SUOS, said: “The judging never gets easier. You’re all winners to have got here.”