Education - Letter: Wizz for atoms! Bring back the bangs

I REFER to the article in Education ("Teach science as if it were history", 24 September) on science teaching. One of the major reasons for the lack of interest in science in schools was not mentioned. The current national curriculum syllabuses for "Double Award" science taught to more than 80 per cent of our young people are so boring. Health and safety regulations have banned almost all the fun in chemistry. No longer can teachers plan experiments every week to engage and maintain pupil's interest. Instead they are subjected to large chunks of geology and industrial processes which, in my 30 years' experience of teaching, are guaranteed to turn young people off science faster than anything else.

Let us return to the days of "stinks". It captured the imagination of many of us in years gone by and could easily and profitably do so again.

Mrs J Noble

Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire