Bob Worley, former Head of Chemistry at Norwich School, has been awarded the 'Excellence in Secondary and Further Education Prize' by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Bob has been awarded the prize in recognition of his significant and sustained contributions to the development and promotion of safe practical resources for teachers worldwide, especially in the field of microscale chemistry.

As the Chemistry advisor at CLEAPSS since 1991, Bob has written many documents for CLEAPSS which are available to all teachers in the UK. These include Hazcards which translate Safety Data Sheets for school technicians and teachers and Recipe Sheets for making solutions. He has answered thousands of queries from teachers and technicians on safety, storage and waste, and investigated the cause of many serious incidents in school laboratories. He has performed hundreds of workshops around the country and appeared on Teachers TV and ManLab. He has made full-scale demonstrations safer and yet still impressive.

In carrying out these duties, Bob also gained an interest in miniaturising experiments. To be accepted over the traditional approach, this style of chemistry has to offer more “teaching value”. This means delving deeper into how reactions work, making lessons more time-efficient, being aware of environmental and sustainability issues and not over-loading the short-term working memory of students.