Teaching schoolchildren to reach for the stars

Meet Arabi Karteepan. This visionary Head of Physics at Croydon High School for Girls also founded Astrogazers, a star-gazing club that has rocketed in popularity. Her passion for astronomy is not only a driving force behind her teaching. It's resulted in groundbreaking initiatives that have captured the imaginations of her pupils and the wider public. 

The seed of intrigue at the prospect of teaching was planted while Arabi was a student at King's. During her degree, she opted into the Undergraduate Ambassador Scheme and gained experience of teaching physics. Soon after completing her PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) at King's, she entered the classroom full-time.

Launching Astrogazers  

Arabi joined Croydon High School as a teacher in 2021. Here, she introduced Astrogazers, a club that stemmed from her childhood passion for the cosmos. She hoped to promote astrophysics and STEM-related careers through the club. It began with activities such as navigating the night sky. This later evolved into a bold idea – launching a weather balloon to touch the edge of space.

Since its launch, the impact of Astrogazers has rippled throughout the school and wider community, extending its reach from the pre-school group to junior school, senior school, the Croydon High alumni network and beyond. Astrogazers began with six pupils and grew to have 19 pupils, with additional girls eagerly on the waiting list.

Touching the edge of space 

Mission Aspiration was Arabi's bold plan to launch a weather balloon and for it to reach a high enough altitude so that it was touching the edge of space. It involved a team of girls aged 10-16.  

The first launch took place on 30 June 2023. This was unsuccessful due to strong wind gusts, which led to friction burn between the release and the parachute cords. But Arabi was determined to show the pupils that failure leads to success by exhibiting resilience and perseverance. She and her pupils worked over their summer holidays to prepare for another launch with two payloads. This successfully reached an amazing altitude of 32,380m.

Arabi recalls: 'A key highlight was the moment the girls and I saw the very first video footage of the edge of space on the drive back to London from Oxford. The view was beautiful. We all screamed in delight!'

An award-winning career 

Another standout moment for Arabi came in 2021 when she was accredited as a Lead Practitioner. This recognised her as an influential and outstanding teacher making significant impact on improving the quality of teaching and learning and outcomes for students. She was also awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Secondary and Further Education Award 2024 for promoting Astronomy and Space Science.

Arabi's Mission Aspiration also caught the attention of education professionals. She has created a how-to-guide article and a video on YouTube written to empower other educators to replicate her programme.

Most recently, Arabi has formed a growing partnership with Professor Cathryn Mitchell and Dr Robert Watson from the University of Bath. Together with the students in Astrogazers, they are working on Mission Pegasus, which involves launching a satellite. Watch this space!