ACADEMIC
Politics
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The number of boys opting to study Politics continued to grow
to see the foundations laid down by Fifth Formers in the Summer term of 2020 paying off as they began their A level studies as Lower Sixth divisions; they
Photograph by Diliff
he Politics Department continued to brave the ever-changing teaching landscape to deliver lessons to boys both in person on the Hill and online via Teams. It was heartening to see the number of boys applying to read Politics and Politics-related degrees at high quality institutions both in the UK and further afield. The number of boys opting to study Politics in the Sixth Form continued to grow, demonstrating the importance of the subject to this generation of Harrovians. It was excellent
certainly hit the ground running and benefited from their introductory course in political philosophy and UK politics. – Alastair Cook, Head of Politics
Theology & Philosophy
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For the past few years, we have been trying to embed Philosophy for Children (P4C) across the year groups. We attempted with some considerable success to conduct these enquiries online, using philosophical and religious texts as stimuli for discussion. We found that making use of online collaboration spaces where comments could be written by the boys led to deeper and more thoughtful spoken reflections. During the lockdown, the boys were keen for the Super-Curriculum to continue. One group started to create a philosophy podcast series, which they hope will be ready during 2022. Another group of boys asked for a weekly seminar on the academic
| 2021
Upper Sixth Formers studied Freud (left) and Jung (right)
reading of the Bible, which was so popular it became quickly oversubscribed. Andrew Arthur (The Knoll) was awarded third place in the HART Human Rights essay prize for his essay on education in Nigeria. The entries of Edred Clutton (The Knoll) and June Hyun (West Acre) were also both highly commended in their respective categories. We were delighted to be able to release another edition of the department’s academic journal, which contained articles from boys and beaks on philosophical, theological and ethical matters. – John McAleer, Head of Theology & Philosophy
Photograph by Max Halberstadt
HARROW RECORD
Photograph by Unbekannt
he necessity of online learning during the lockdown or hybrid learning for the rest of the year required creativity in delivering engaging lessons. We began by flipping the educational experience: Masters in the department deliberately delivered less instructional content when teaching online by getting the boys to prepare the lesson material in advance for ‘prep’, with the expectation that they would be able to work on live problem-solving during the lesson. The boys also worked collaboratively on group presentations – ranging from introducing the monotheistic religions in the Shell year to analysing Freud and Jung in the Upper Sixth.
