Blog: Learning

Results of the Super Scientist Competition 2026

Congratulations to all the amazing schools who contributed to this year’s investigation. All of the schools listed below will be sent Super Scientist certificates and pencils in recognition of the great work they have done. Schools who entered the most data have been sent additional prizes including seeds to plant. The runners up received gift vouchers, and the winning schools are to be awarded an extra special prize for their class. 

This year we are also celebrating 20 years of the Spring Bulbs for Schools project; an exciting milestone achieved through the efforts and dedication of each and every school who has taken part – so thank you all so much!

Professor Plant would like to thank all the schools that contributed to making this year’s investigation a success.

Enillwyr / Winners:

Cymru / Wales: 

Henllys Church in Wales

Lloegr / England: 

Lammack Primary School

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

Langbank Primary School

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

Scarva Primary School

Yn Ail / Runners up:

Cymru / Wales: 

Pil Primary School

Lloegr / England: 

Pinehurst Primary School

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

Leslie Primary School

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

Irvinestown Primary School

Cydnabyddiaeth Arbennig / Special Recognition:

Cymru / Wales: 

Raglan CiW VC Primary School

Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth

Ysgol Bryn Deri

Ysgol Tir Morfa

Ysgol Twm o'r Nant

Ysgol San Sior

Ysgol Glan Conwy

YGG Tonyrefail

Forden CiW School

Plasnewydd Primary

St. Mary's Church in Wales Primary School

Mountain Lane Primary

Ysgol Pentreuchaf

Ysgol Gymraeg Morswyn

Rhayader Primary School

Lloegr / England: 

Broadgreen Primary School

The Olive School

St Anthony's RC Primary School - Blackburn

Anfield Road Primary School

Stanford in the Vale Primary School

Castle View Primary School

Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School

St Chrysostom's C of E Primary School

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

Addiewell Primary School

Kirklandneuk Primary School

Newmains Primary School

St Peter's Primary School

Greenburn ASN School

Logan Primary School

Croftfoot Primary School

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

St Mary's Primary School - Maguiresbridge

St Francis' Primary School, Aghaderg

Ballyholland Primary School

St John's Primary School - NI

Clod Uchel / Highly Commended

Cymru / Wales: 

Ysgol Gynradd Llandegfan

Malpas Park Primary School

St Cadoc's Roman Catholic Primary School

Ysgol Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd

Ysgol Llanhari

Montgomery Church in Wales School

Cornist Park C.P

Ysgol Dyffryn Ial

Marlborough Primary School

Peterston super Ely Primary School

NPTC Newtown College

Ysgol Padarn Sant 

Llanmartin Primary School

Ysgol Pen y Fro

Ysgol Llanddulas

Lloegr / England: 

St Mary's CE Primary - Manchester

Emmaus Primary School

Sylvester Primary Academy

Wensley Fold CE Primary Academy

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and Nursery

St Anne's Stanley C of E Primary School

St Peter's CE Primary School

Trumacar Primary School

St Edward's Catholic Primary School

St Nicholas Catholic Academy

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

Doonfoot Primary School

St Conval's Primary School

Livingston Village Primary School

Mount Florida Primary School

Gavinburn Primary School

Our Lady's RC Primary School

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

St John's Eglish Primary School

Cortamlet Primary School

Gwyddonwyr Gwych / Super Scientists

Cymru / Wales: 

Ysgol Hafodwenog

St. Mary’s Overton Primary

Archbishop Rowan Williams VA CiW Primary

Sketty Primary School

Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd

Pontllanfraith Primary

Ysgol Penmachno

Ysgol y Berllan Deg

St Patrick's RC Primary – Newport

Lloegr / England: 

Hamstead Primary School

St Silas Primary - Blackburn

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour RC Primary School

Lunt's Heath Primary School

St Joseph's RC Primary - Darwen

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Catholic Primary School

Hill View Primary School – Halton

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

St John Ogilvie Primary School

St Brendan's Primary School

St Mary's Primary - Glasgow

Alloway Primary School

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

St Patrick's Primary - Eskra

St Michael's Primary School, Clady

Cyfranwyr / Contributors

Cymru / Wales: 

Oystermouth Primary

St Athan Primary

Ysgol Bryn Hedydd

Ysgol Maes y Mynydd

Ysgol Mynydd Bychan

Cwmnedd Primary School

Pennar Community School

Ysgol Llanychllwydog

Mary Immaculate R.C. School

Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli

Lloegr / England: 

St Gerard's Catholic Primary & Nursery

Monksdown Primary School

Church Cowley St James CE Primary School

Yr Alban / Scotland: 

-

Gogledd Iwerddon / Northern Ireland: 

St Mary's Primary School

St Brendan's Primary School

Well done everyone! 

Below are some lovely comments left by schools concluding this year’s Spring Bulbs Project:

Ysgol Pentreuchaf:

Diolch am gael cymeryd rhan yn y cofnodi. Edrych ymlaen at y flwyddyn nesa Diolch.

Langbank Primary School 

Our school grounds look lovely with all our spring flowers. Our learning during this project has tied in well to our science and maths lessons, especially negative numbers…Thank you so much from P7 at Langbank for letting us be part of this project again.

Leslie Primary School

Thank you for all your effort. We are looking forward to taking our plants home today.

Ysgol San Sior

Thank you for giving us our daffodils

-

I hope that people can be more considerate about nature the online lessons inspired me a lot. i am sad that there will no longer be any more online lessons but i will be more considerate about my surroundings and try to make less carbon footprints.

-

I enjoyed watching my flower grow

Pinehurst Primary School 

Our lovely daffodils opened today. They look so pretty and really brighten up our school.

Thank you, Bulb Buddies, for your incredible work this year!

-Professor Plant

Hi Bulb Buddies!

I hope you have had a lovely February and have enjoyed continuing your hard work collecting your weather data! Some schools have even begun logging their flowering data, which is great to see. 

February was quite a wet month for many areas across the UK with some areas seeing more than the full month's average rainfall within the first 14 days of the month, as reported by the Met Office. There were however regional differences, with Scotland and particularly western Scotland reporting below average rainfall. Temperatures were also variable, with it being colder at the beginning of the month and milder towards the end.

Some areas may have experienced a few days here and there of sunshine, which is reflected in some of your comments, and some images I have taken around St Fagans during the month! I wonder if we will see more sunshine now as we enter into March.

Let’s take a look at your observations for last month, as well as some of your flowering updates!

Weather Observations: 

Henllys Church in Wales School

It has been very rainy this week

Lammack Primary School 

Extremely windy and very cold

Henllys Church in Wales School 

It has not been as cold as it has been

Irvinestown Primary School 

We really loved all the sunny weather we had this week

Professor Plant:

Thank you all for continuing to add these details in your comments. We can definitely see the trend of the weather getting milder as we read through the comment timeline, which means our data matches with other weather reports! 

I agree with Irvinestown Primary School about enjoying the bits of sunshine we have still managed to have!

For all schools who were unable to take weather readings due to half term, don’t worry! – but thank you for commenting this under your ‘No Record’ uploads.

Flowering Updates:

Llanmartin Primary School

Our daffodils in pots are blooming (up against the wall) and those planted in the bed and alongside the pathway in the ground are only just beginning to bloom.

Pinehurst Primary School

Our lovely daffodils opened today. They look so pretty and really brighten up our school.

We have a lovely Crocus. We love the purple colour on it.

Lammack Primary School

One of the mystery bulbs flowered on Wednesday. It is a snowdrop.

Another mystery bulb is almost flowering. It looks to be deep purple.

Leslie Primary School 

We are so Excited. Out first Crocus has flowered

We were all so excited to see the purple.

St Chrysostom's C of E Primary School

Many plants daffodils have flowered in the pots Only two have not flowered yet. Daffodils in the ground planter box have also flowered.

Mountain Lane School

A lovely week in Buckley. It was warm and sunny. We all went to check on the flowers on Friday afternoon. None of the daffodils have flowered yet but several looked ready to pop

 St Francis' Primary - Aghaderg 

The pots in the sunnier location of the school grew taller and have opened first

St Mary's CE Primary - Manchester

One daffodil has bloomed; the rest are slowly growing still.

Professor Plant:

It is great to hear that you have started to see your Daffodils, Crocus and Mystery Bulbs bloom! It is so exciting to see your hard work pay off as you watch your plants grow from small bulbs into vibrant flowers. 

It is lovely to know that you feel that they are brightening up your school area, Pinehurst Primary School.

Keep up the amazing work watching over your flowers, Bulb Buddies.

-

This month (March) is now our last month of collecting data for this year, so make sure you are uploading everything you have collected to our website by the 27^th.  Thank you to everyone who has engaged in the project so far.

Professor Plant

Hi Bulb Buddies!

I hope you all enjoyed the first month of 2026 and have continued to collect your weather data since returning to school! Lots of exciting things took place in January, such as our ‘Name a Daffodil’ Competition, and two of our new Virtual Workshops. Thank you to all schools who took part in any of these activities, we really appreciate your support. If you are interested in catching our last two Virtual Workshops, you can still book a space here: Spring Bulbs for Schools Virtual Workshops | Museum Wales. Our ‘Name a Daffodil’ Competition is now officially closed, so keep an eye out for the name-reveal soon!

Let’s take a look at what kinds of weather January brought us:

January began as a particularly cold month with many experiencing frost, ice and snow across areas of the UK, with Scotland seeing ‘extensive’ snowfall reported by the Met Office. 

Storm Goretti then brought damaging winds particularly in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, causing the first red wind warning for 2026! It also brought snow across areas in Wales, the West Midlands and the South Pennines.

Later into the month, weather became wet and windy due to further recorded storms, Storm Ingrid and Storm Chandra, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Some areas of Somerset and Devon have experienced flooding too. This rain made its way to Northern Ireland, where the Met Office mentioned some of the heaviest monthly rainfall totals were recorded.

Many of these temperature and weather observations were logged in your comments and data uploads, so let’s look at what you experienced!

Weather and Temperature Observations:

Ysgol Pentreychaf:

Pentreuchaf wedi cael ychydig o eira dydd Llun wythnos yma

Henllys Church in Wales School

Snow, ice wind, rain , storms and sunshine A mixture of weather this week .

Langbank Primary School

It snowed here on Thursday. Our rain gauge was frozen so we had to melt the ice to find the volume of water

St John's Primary School

We were just back to school from the Christmas break. The water in the jug was quite a lot but we think it was because the snow had melted. It was very icy and cold this week coming to school.

Henllys Church in Wales School

Less rain means more playtime

Lammack Primary School

Snow and ice on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Some of our pots were vandalised during the Christmas holidays but we have collected most of the bulbs and will replant them as soon as we can.

Greenburn ASN School

At start of week, we were on an Amber alert for severe weather so not safe for the children to go out to take measurements

Henllys Church in Wales School

it is not as cold as it has been

Pil Primary School

It was very cold this week.

St John's Primary School

There was lots of rain this week. Some schools were closed on Tuesday as there was a storm, but our school was open.

Pil Primary School

It has been very wet this week.

Professor Plant:

Thank you so much for uploading your brilliant comments and including details that can help us learn more about how different areas of the UK have been affected by weather! It looks like many of you experienced the cold and snowy weather, with Langbank Primary School having to wait for their rain gauge to unfreeze before taking a reading!

Well done Lammack Primary School for continuing to collect data even when your pots were vandalised over the holidays, we really appreciate the effort you are putting in to replant your bulbs.

The weather has been particularly damaging this month, Greenburn ASN School, so we totally agree that safety comes first! Thank you for still taking the time to add this to your comments!

Bulb Updates:

Llanmartin Primary School

Bulb growth now 8.5cm

Mountain Lane School

Lots of shoots appearing for the bulbs A miserable drizzly week.

Langbank Primary School

Most of the bulbs that we planted in the ground are coming through now

We can see shoots from most of the daffodil bulbs in our pots now. Nearly all the bulbs in the ground ar growing and are about 6cm tall. There are no signs of the mystery bulbs and the crocus bulbs yet

Ysgol Gynradd Llandegfan

Mae ein bylbiau dirgel wedi dechrau tyfu.

Professor Plant:

It is amazing to hear that more schools have began to see growth in their bulbs. Keep checking to see how they change over February, you may start to see some flower!

Information on how to identify if your plants have flowered can be found on the website here: Step 5: Keeping flower records (January - March) | Museum Wales, as it can be tricky to know when the right time is to document the official flowering date.

You may find that some of your plants aren’t ready to flower yet, so please don’t worry if you do not have data to input so far! The best thing to do is to continue monitoring your plants in the meantime to spot any changes.

School closures!

Mountain Lane School

No results from Monday due to school being closed because of the snow. Lots of snow and on Thursday evening and rain night - we thought wed be closed but it was just slushy because of the temperature

Rhayader Primary

No records on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, due to INSET and 2 days of snow, so no school.

Ysgol Gymraeg Morswyn

Ysgol ar gau oherwydd rhai staff methu cael i mewn oherwydd eira ochr arall ir ynys. Dim eira yng Nghaergybi.

Plasnewydd Primary

School was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of snow.

Ysgol Gynradd Llandegfan

Oherwydd eira nid oedd yr ysgol yn agored ar y 5ed ar 6ed. Roedd wedi toddi erbyn y 7fed.

Professor Plant:

Don’t worry if your school had closed and no data could be collected; your safety comes first! I hope you have all returned to school by now, and are settling back in.

Thank you for your hard work uploading these comments despite the weather!

Well done again Bulb Buddies for your hard work over the last few months, you should be very proud of yourselves! Keep it up, and we will see what February brings us next!

Professor Plant

To celebrate 20 years of the Spring Bulbs for Schools Project we are hosting four virtual workshops that will explore painting, climate change, the industrial revolution, and much more!

English: Book your ticket

Welsh: Book your ticket

Hi Bulb Buddies – Happy 2026!

Well done for continuing to log your data last month before your break, it has been great to read your comments and observations about what kind of weather you had coming into December. I have also read lots of comments logging that you are starting to see your bulbs growing – amazing!

Overall December was wet and windy, but mostly mild for usual UK weather, with temperatures getting colder at the end of the month. 

We had Storm Bram passing closely around the 8^th of December, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to northern Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of Wales. This resulted in flooding, power outage and road closures in many areas, as reported on by the Met Office.

Once Storm Bram had passed, the weather began to change for the last 10 or so days of December, when it became dryer, but colder.

The colder temperatures have carried on into 2026, with some snow and ice warnings, and some school closures! I am interested to read your comments on these colder temperatures as January continues.

Let’s look at some of your comments from last month!

-

Temperature and Weather observations:

Henllys Church in Wales School:

This week was a rainy and cold week

Irvinestown Primary School:

We had so much heavy rain on Friday that we didn’t get outside to play and we were very sad

Ysgol Pentreuchaf:

Mae wedi bwrw glaw mawr yma wythnos yma ond tydi hi ddim yn oer yma.

Professor Plant:

Well done for adding these details to your data – even when you weren’t able to go outside to play! It is important to notice the changes in weather and temperature, and to consider how this might affect your bulbs. The rain and mild weather might mean that the bulbs could flower a bit earlier than expected!

-

Plant Growth!

Gavinburn Primary School:

We have attached a photo of our bulbs which are beginning to peek through the soil. We've seen lots of roots underneath too!

Cornist Park C.P:

It has been very cold this week. We had lots of rain in the middle of the week. We are beginning to get very excited because our first spring bulbs have started to come through the soil.

Mountain Lane School:

Green growth noticed in our bulb planters.

Pil Primary School:

-It has been cold this week. Our spring bulbs are shotting up.

-It has been raining a lot this week. We like checking the rainfall and temperature.

Llanmartin Primary School:

Our bulbs are starting to grow, approximately 1.5cm of growth.

Professor Plant:

Wow! How exciting that you are reporting seeing your bulbs grow! Well done for logging this and keeping watch over your plants. Over the next couple of months, you may be able to start logging your flowering data, if you notice any flowers opening!

-

How is the project going?

Pinehurst Primary School:

We love going and checking our data every day.

Professor Plant:

I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying collecting data! Your observations are very valuable, so keep up the brilliant work. Great job!

-

I have loved reading through your data and observations over December. Keep up the amazing work Bulb Buddies, I look forward to seeing what happens next over January!

Professor Plant