Brentwood School pupils could not contain their excitement as they waited to catch a glimpse of the eclipse on Friday. 

There was a drop in temperature and a rise in excitement at Brentwood School but a thick blanket of cloud obscured the view of the much anticipated partial solar eclipse.

Armed with safety glasses – a thousand times stronger than sunglasses – and pin hole cameras made in class, pupils across the School from the Preparatory to the Sixth Form, shared the anticipation of this astronomical phenomena.

Headmaster Ian Davies described the near-total solar eclipse as “a unique educational experience.”

The next similar eclipse will be in August 2026 and the next total eclipse will not be until September 2090.

Mr Davies suggested pupils kept their glasses for the 2090 total eclipse. “You may be around to see it but I probably won’t be,” he joked.

Before congregating on the School field, Head of Physics, Mr Robert Hainitz, had given Senior School pupils a slide presentation explaining the path of the eclipse.

In the Preparatory School, Head of First Year Science, Mrs Nicola Heelam, used props to explain how the Moon could cover the Sun.