Leicester's National Space Centre is planning to come to Coalville on a monthly basis after a successful first visit to the town last weekend.

The Space Centre staged the Ignite Family Space Evening at the offices of the Coalville CAN group in Memorial Square.

Aimed at families and children, around 250 people attended the evening where activities and film shows were organised.

The Leicestershire Astronomy Society were there and visitors had the chance to fire off paper rockets and fly mini-drones.

National Space Centre's Community Engagement Manager, CJ Bishop, explained some of the thinking behind the evening.

He says the initiative can help Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in the area.

CJ told Coalville Nub News: "This came on the back of a young local boy, Mychylo, who wanted a space club in Coalville. At the time when he requested this, there wasn't one.

"But at the same time, we were connecting with some communities and Deana from Coalville CAN, got in touch and said, do you guys do this? Would you like to come up to Coalville? 

"So I said, most definitely, let's have a chat. And she shared her space with us. I said, this would make for a great community STEM hub - a kind of a home from home for space or STEM activity to happen without our presence, but for something that we can help and influence.

"But what was different to this is we actually add the emphasis of wanting to bring in more local industries and businesses, but also local STEM organisations together. 

"So that's why you saw the British Model Flying Association, STEM learning, and the Leicester Astronomical Society. So we did a big consultation where people could say what they wanted to see from the National Space Centre doing in Coalville. 

"And some of those were holiday clubs after school provision, stargazing astronomy, and then also a specialist provision for home educated or children or for those with educational needs. 

"That's what we've acted on, and we're hoping that this is kind of just that first ignition process, really creating that community stem club."

CJ believes that space is now becoming a relevant topic again after featuring in the news bulletins recently.

He added: "It's important on a global scale, I think for the UK, for the first time ever wanting and actually launching from UK soil is an important time.

"And for Leicester to brand itself as a space city is very prevalent in this as well, we have to take the role of making sure that we are connecting with local communities with Leicester and Leicestershire. And that we're not leaving our communities behind in any format. 

"We want our young people to be nurtured, and have the opportunity to be part of that talent pool for those global industries that are coming into work out of Leicester. Yeah, so really kind of levelling up our young people. 

"But aside from that, it's also about the personal and social development standards space can bring. So you know, teachings about resilience and determination and teamwork and collaboration and creative thinking, problem solving. All of these things can come from space-based activity.

"I always say if sports or arts and dance and drama can do these things, or why can't space.

"What's different is that we're not telling children to sit down and listen to us. It's informal time, play type principles and practices that allow kids to get hands on to explore to investigate, and is really to just facilitate and to navigate a little bit rather than to totally take control of a young person's learning - and for them to ask us questions rather than to be give them information. 

"And at times we don't always know the answers. So then we have to research with the with the participants, which is also fun in itself because it enables us to learn more.

"Last week we went out to four local schools, and we engaged with 800 students. And again, that was all because Mychylo wanted a space club.

"Now we're hoping to be in Coalville at least once a month. We're going to train some volunteers and some stuff that continue to deliver programmes in our absence, but we'll support that further going forwards."