Making Science Feel Like It Belongs To Everyone: Lee Whitwell From Mini Professors Weymouth & Dorchester
One of the things I love most about the children’s activity sector is seeing what happens when somebody takes a subject that can feel intimidating and makes it playful, accessible and completely normal.
That’s exactly what Lee Whitwell from Mini Professors Weymouth & Dorchester is doing with science.
Lee is a finalist for Emerging Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026, and in just under three years she’s taken Mini Professors from something she thought she might “dabble” in to a full-time business working across schools, nurseries, holiday clubs and the wider community.
What struck me most in our conversation wasn’t simply how much the business has grown.
It was why.
“I wanted all children to be able to get a bit of science”
Lee originally ran private preschool classes, but over time she started to feel uncomfortable with the fact that those sessions could only reach families who could afford to book them.
That pushed her towards nurseries and schools.
“I wanted all children to be able to get a bit of me, get a bit of science.”
For Lee, science shouldn’t feel like something that suddenly appears when children get older and have to start separating it into chemistry, biology and physics.
She wants them to experience it earlier as something fun, messy, curious and connected to everyday life.
That’s why the Mini Professors model is so hands-on. Children aren’t just sitting listening or filling in worksheets. They’re touching, experimenting, asking questions, getting messy and seeing for themselves what happens next.
Curiosity comes before confidence
One of Lee’s strongest messages is that science begins with questions.
She sees that in the children she works with over time, particularly in schools where she can return again and again and watch their confidence develop.
“Science is all about questions.”
Some children who were quieter the first time she visited start contributing more during later sessions. They become comfortable asking questions, taking a guess and being curious without worrying about whether they’ve got the “right” answer.
That matters because confidence in learning isn’t just about knowing things.
It’s about feeling safe enough to wonder.
Lee also sees the same thing happening with parents. Many adults carry the belief that they’re “not sciencey” because of their own experience at school, but Lee challenges that idea.
“You breathe, you eat, you cook, you garden.”
Science is already there.
Her aim is to help adults and children recognise that curiosity is enough of a starting point.
The expert doesn’t always start as the expert
There was a brilliant moment in our conversation when I asked Lee about her own science background.
Her answer?
“I would say I was that ‘I’m not sciencey’.”
And I think that’s part of what makes her so good at what she does.
Lee isn’t approaching children as somebody who has always found science easy and can’t understand why anyone else wouldn’t.
She understands what it feels like to think it isn’t for you.
Instead, she describes herself as curious and excited to keep learning, and that energy comes straight into the sessions.
That’s a useful reminder for any class business owner. Sometimes the thing that makes you powerful as a teacher isn’t that you’ve always known everything. It’s that you understand the journey your customers are on.
Growth can mean reaching people differently
Lee’s business now looks very different from the preschool-class model she started with.
Her WOW Centre is jokingly described as more of a “glorified storeroom” because so much of the work is now delivered out in the community. She partners with schools, nurseries and other organisations, bringing the resources and expertise directly to the children.
That means the business is growing through multiple routes:
- preschool and homeschool classes
- schools and nurseries
- holiday clubs
- partnerships with local organisations
- curriculum-linked workshops
But the most interesting part is that every route supports the same purpose: more children getting a positive experience of science.
It’s growth through reach rather than simply volume.
450 children in one summer
One of the best examples is Lee’s work with Dorset Council through the Holiday Activities and Food programme.
Lee joined the programme as a STEM provider and now goes into other organisations’ holiday clubs to deliver Mini Professors sessions.
During one summer alone, Lee and her team worked across 19 different providers and reached around 450 children.
Many of those children wouldn’t necessarily have chosen a science activity themselves.
They might have signed up for sport, art or something completely different.
But Lee gets to walk into that environment and give them an experience they weren’t expecting.
“I get to change their mind by the end of it.”
That’s impact.
Not just teaching children who already love science, but reaching the ones who might never have thought it was for them.
Building a business around what you care about
Lee also wears another hat as a regional franchisor for WOW World Group, supporting franchisees across parts of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
Her view on what makes someone suited to running a franchise is refreshingly simple.
Your previous job isn’t the most important thing.
What matters more is whether you’re:
- willing to learn the business side
- comfortable being visible in your community
- passionate and engaging in the room
- ready to handle the marketing and admin as well as the delivery
- able to bring your own personality to the programme
As Lee says, the person at the front “needs to be real”.
That’s just as true whether you’re running a science workshop, a baby class or building a whole franchise territory.
Emerging doesn’t have to mean small
What I really like about Lee’s story is that she’s still relatively early in the life of this particular business, but the thinking behind it is already expansive.
She’s not asking, “How many private classes can I personally fit into a week?”
She’s asking, “How many children can I help experience science differently?”
That question has led her into schools, nurseries, HAF programmes, community partnerships and new opportunities she probably wouldn’t have found if she’d stuck rigidly to the original model.
And I think there’s something in that for all of us.
Growth doesn’t always mean more of the same.
Sometimes it means finding a completely different route to the people you want to serve.
Watch the full interview
In our full conversation, Lee shares how Mini Professors Weymouth & Dorchester has grown, why she wants science to feel accessible to every child, how she’s reached hundreds of children through the HAF programme and what she’s learned from supporting franchisees too.
👉 Watch Lee’s full finalist interview here.
Lee Whitwell is a finalist for Emerging Business of the Year at The Class Business Awards 2026.
Join us on Saturday 10 October 2026 at the National Conference Centre in Solihull for The Class Business Live, where class business owners, finalists, judges and sponsors will come together for a full day of learning, conversations and connections before The Class Business Awards & Afterparty that evening.
There’s still time to book your ticket here!
