ENTERTAINMENT, science and learning came together as Ilkley Grammar School opened its doors to the parents of prospective students for its annual open day on September 30.

The school, in Cowpasture Road, held morning and evening sessions where parents could see what the school had to offer to its students.

In the morning, visitors were shown around the school by students from Year 8, who acted as informative tour guides.

In the evening, the displays in classrooms ranged from the scientific and fiery to the dramatic.

There were entertaining and interactive displays covering many subject areas.

There was an International Café, Friends of Ham feeding visitors to the languages department, alongside fellow local businesses, La Stazione and Emporia Italia, who donated raffle prizes. The raffle itself raised £45 for Medecins sans Frontieres.

The school also played host to the National Rotary Club Young Chef Competition, a variety of sports, rehearsals for the upcoming school production ‘Oliver’, and the science team brought the subject to life with entertaining and fact-filled explanations of related subjects.

The school's maths department created a human scatter graph, the CAD and ICT suites were full of students working hard and interested parents watching them design and create.

The humanities team put on a host of activities, from Facebook detecting to digging for artefacts in history.

The English team, using the theme of National Poetry Day 'Light', asked visitors to write a metaphor about light onto a 'flame' and add it to a 'poetry fire'. As everybody's creative writing was added to the bonfire, it created an overall metaphor for learning.

Ilkley Grammar's art rooms were full of students and visitors taking part in the National Big Draw Competition.

Headteacher, Helen Williams, was delighted with the comments made by parents on the day.

She said: "The feedback we have received, both written and verbal, was extremely positive.

"Our visitors always comment on how well our students speak so articulately and proudly about our school.

"They praised our students' maturity, smartness, courtesy and smiles. Our students are our best advert. We know we will yet again have high numbers of applicants for places in Year 7 for next September."