On Monday, 24 year 9 students from NLCS came together with a group of year 9s from our partner school, The Sacred Heart Language College in Harrow, for a day of philosophy.
This was the first time that the event had taken place since the pandemic, and again, we are delighted to have been able to host Sacred Heart students in the third of our academic partnership events with them this academic year. The question under scrutiny for the year 9s on Monday was whether or not it is reasonable to believe in life after death – a question that took them far beyond their curriculum studies so far.
Alongside acquiring new skills such as working collaboratively and particularly independently from a teacher’s guidance, the day enabled the students to develop their skills of academic study via a set of advanced sources gleaned from a range of philosophers such as Plato, Immanuel Kant, John Hick and Richard Dawkins. In preparation for a short presentation on their source, each group spent time evaluating the particular philosophical argument it had been given. Drawing upon all they had learned all day – the philosophical concepts themselves as well as how to make valid and well-supported philosophical arguments – the students then spent the last session of the day in a formal debate on the key question.
We want to congratulate all students involved for the high calibre of their work on Monday, feeling sure that the day will have ignited many intellectual areas for future research and reflection.