On Tuesday, we held our annual Year 10 Symposium with Queen Elizabeth’s School. This was our first whole year-group partnership event to take place in person since the pandemic.
Prompted by the overarching theme of ‘Change and Renewal’, for ten days beforehand, the students devised and researched their individual topic within the discipline they had selected such as Geography, Modern Foreign Languages, or Science. The key to the project was academic independence and scholarship, and the aim of this morning of academic enrichment was for each student to travel as far as possible beyond the curriculum. This often necessitated the students placing their subject matter in the context of the real world they find around them. Coming together on Tuesday in groups of around 10, each student gave a formal presentation on their findings, followed by some plenary discussion all of which was overseen and chaired by a specialist teacher.
There was a wide array of topics right across the disciplines such as: ‘The effect of Climate change and disease on the fall of the Roman Empire’ (Classical Studies); ‘The effect of working from home’ (Current Affairs); ‘Time without change’ (Philosophy); ‘How literary works can lead to a change in our understanding of diversity’ (English); ‘The rise and fall of the UN throughout history’ (History); ‘How has music changed global politics (Music); ‘Why we can’t remember being a baby’ (Science). Stretched and challenged throughout the process of preparation and delivery, the opportunity to work in partnership with peers from another institution, will have proved formative in the development of our students’ academic and personal confidence.
Certainly, this partnership event was really inspiring, and teachers were unanimous in praising the quality of presentations and intellectual engagement throughout. Many congratulations to our Year 10 students for ending the year on such an academic high.
Dr Ruth McLoughlin, Partnership Co-ordinator
