Sixth Form Newsletter - Easter 2019

SIXTH FORM REVIEW JANUARY 2019

UNIVERSITY OFFERS FLOOD IN FOR UPPER SIXTH

Throughout the Autumn term, Upper Sixth students were busily completing their UCAS applications to secure places on the courses of their choice. A huge amount of work goes into this from both students and staff so it is hugely gratifying to see fantastic offers pouring in from Universities up and down the country. The College is particularly proud to announce that two of our students have been successful in securing offers from Oxford or Cambridge: Head Boy Greg Simond has been offered a place at Brasenose College Oxford to study Medicine and Tobani Olabowale has been offered a place at St John’s College Cambridge to read Land Economy. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the offers our Upper Sixth students have been securing with over 40% of all offers received so far coming from Russel Group Universities and many other fantastic institutions besides. Once all the offers are in and our students have had a chance to choose their preferences, we look forward to updating you on their future destinations.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2018 Upper Sixth 3VB Law day On Thursday 13th September five Upper Sixth

students were given the exciting opportunity to visit the Inns of Court and the Inns of Chancery in London for an event held by the legal practice 3VB , one of the leading barristers chambers in the UK. The programme firstly gave an ‘Introduction to the Bar’ led

by Matthew Hardwick QC where nine leading barristers gave speeches on their experiences in the profession as well as providing information as to how to become a Barrister. Afterward each school present was given a Barrister to work with in preparation for a ‘mini-moot’, where everyone was given a mock case file to argue the case in a mock trial. The Holyport team worked with Hannah Glover to represent Long Sutton Golf Club in the given case of Porcine v Long Sutton Golf Club, whereby Mr Porcine was arguing for a golf tournament not to go ahead as the proximity of the 5th hole to his villa meant that he, his house and his cat were in danger of being hit by golf balls.

After being given time to discuss the case and determine how to prevent the injunction being made, the team put forward Issy Mayhead and Danielle Hawkins as advocates. The trial was judged by top Judge Andrew Onslow QC and representing the Golf Club, Issy and Danielle presented their points to ‘the court’ and the decision was made by the Judge that the injunction should not be made, winning the trial for the Golf Club and the Holyport team.

After a three course lunch in Gray’s Inn Matthew Hardwick QC took the Holyport students on a tour of the Inns, the Royal Courts of Justice and the Criminal courts where the group was able to witness a live

trial in which the judge was finding a man to be guilty of lying under oath. Overall this was an amazing experience which the students benefited from immensely, being given such high quality insight into the profession and hopefully can be shared with many more students in the future.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2018 Lest We Forget This Wednesday, Holyport College became one of the venues around the country to become involved in the Oxford University led initiative, Lest We Forget. The day involved members of the public coming to the school with memorabilia from WW1, ready to be interviewed about their ancestor’s story and have their objects digitized.

During the day nearly 40 interviews were conducted, over 100 artefacts were digitized and 500 photos taken. As part of the Centenary commemoration of the end of World War One, a vast archive - including what was recorded this Wednesday - will go live online in November 2018, and will be publically available.

Personally, the highlight of the event was observing how involved and interested everyone was during the day. There was such a happy ambience pervading the event, and a sense that ‘the right thing was being done’. It was an emotional day for some, and I loved how everyone seemed to be moved by the stories we were hearing. Mr McCarey commented at one point that there was a feeling that visitors were ‘unburdening’ themselves with their family stories, and I feel that rang very true. There was a sense of real relief emanating from some visitors as they told their stories, and ensured their ancestors wouldn’t be forgotten.

I am really pleased that Holyport decided to undertake the project; I strongly feel it is so important for social history. Without what Lest We Forget is doing, so many important stories would be lost to history.

By immortalising the WW1 memorabilia, it felt as though we were validating the lives of those who suffered and so often died before they had a chance at life. Furthermore, the preservation of this memorabilia is without a doubt invaluable to future historians studying the Great War. A big thank you to the student and teacher volunteers who helped make the day possible (some on their day off!), to the parents who wrote up the family stories and sent in the memorabilia and to the school, who have shown enthusiasm and support from the start.

Juliette Salgado-Smith, Year 13

SIXTH FORM REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2018 First Scholars events of the year Tan Dhesi, MP visits Holyport Scholars The MP for Slough helped us to kick the Scholars' talks off in style this year. Interviewed by sixth formers, Juliette Salgado-Smith & Samiya Hassan, Tan covered a whole range of topics from Brexit to Boris and from Diversity in the Labour Party to the joys of his job. It was an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening.

Parliamentary Gossip & Tales of Brexit at Second Scholars' talk of the term!

Holyport students attending this Thursday's Scholars' Talk were treated to an evening of amusing tales from the dark underbelly of parliament, as well as on the campaign front-line, in their encounter with Lloyd Mattingley. Lloyd, a former Politics student of Mr Carr, chose not to go to university after school, building an impressive career in parliament instead, and ending up as Chief of Staff for a prominent MP. Lloyd spoke engagingly about life in and outside Westminster and was a hit with the audience who stayed long after the talk had finished to catch up on parliamentary gossip and engage further with our most avuncular guest!

SIXTH FORM REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2018 BBC's medical correspondent drops in for a check-up Holyport students were delighted to welcome the BBC's Fergus Walsh as a visiting speaker last night. Global pandemics, Artificial Intelligence, the future of the NHS and gender equality at the BBC were all on the agenda in a stimulating hour-long session! Sophie Middleton & Greg Simond were on top of their game as well-informed and erudite student interviewers and there were plenty of thoughtful questions from the audience too.

Next Thursday evening we return to the territory of political and social issues with the visit of Connor Woodman. Connor is a social activist and campaigner on prison reform, education and global justice who has been widely published across a range of academic and popular journals. It's sure to be another thought-provoking evening!

Expressive Arts and Music Department News Music Scholars Many congratulations to our 6th Form Music Scholars who received their badges in assembly today!

James Blunden Imogen Harrison

Grace Allen Elizabeth Wales

Outstanding contribution to and leadership of school production, inspiring many younger students and leading by example, and developing his sax performing to grade 8 standard.

Grade 6 Musical Theatre resulting in UCAS accumulation and outstanding personal contribution to many areas of Music Department life including the College Choirs and the Orchestra, leading by example and inspiring many others. Awarded a place in the prestigious Taplow

Outstanding contribution to and leadership of school production and College Choirs, inspiring many younger students and leading by example.

Grade 6 Singing resulting in UCAS accumulation and outstanding leadership of and personal contribution to the College Choirs, leading by example and inspiring many others. Awarded a place in the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

Our 6th Form Music Scholars will join main school students Hector, Eloise, Beth and Arte (who received their badges and Dixit announcement last term) at workshops and performances outside the College to further their musical development over the forthcoming year.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2018 Art exhibition visit On Thursday evening Chloe and Tess enjoyed an art exhibition by artist Anna Razumovskaya at Artique Galleries in Windsor.

Razumovskaya is an internationally acclaimed artist who focuses on the female form. Her paintings are impressionistic with a modern touch. Our girls were very impressed by the works, many of which were sold on the night.

They also had the opportunity of asking Razumovskaya questions about her works which was a great experience.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW OCTOBER 2018 Visiting speaker, Connor Woodman, delivers tour de force on global issues It was standing room only for the visit of Connor Woodman on Thursday evening in the Dudley Room. Connor is a researcher at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies which is an independent educational charity that advances public understanding of crime, criminal justice and social harm. The audience were treated to a fervent display of fluent rhetoric on a range of issues relating to social justice globally and closer to home. These stretched from the inequities in global capitalism to the nature of policing in the UK and the 'Rhodes Must Fall' campaign. It was another stimulating and thought-provoking evening which was aided by our excellent student interviewers, Romina Findel-Hawkins and Louis Gregory.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW OCTOBER 2018 How to survive in a Post-Truth World!

Fake news, the slow death of print media & the dubious power of media magnates were all on the agenda with Alejandro Gonzalez, our visiting speaker from the Financial Times this week. Alex is a production journalist on one of the FT's weekly papers and treated us to a thought-provoking tour d'horizon of the newspaper world.

The questions from our interviewers, Danielle Hawkins & Juliette Salgado-Smith, were as sharp and well-prepared as ever and Alex was pushed on a number of issues including the relevance of newspapers in our increasingly atomised society, which political party the FT was likely to favour at the next election and his all-important advice for budding journalists in our audience! On balance our guest was optimistic about the new age of social media and encouraged students to get involved and make sure their voices were heard whatever their preferred platform was!

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Diamond Geezer wows Holyport Scientists Holyport's students were treated to a fascinating hour with Dr Tim Mollart of Element Six this Thursday evening. Tim is the Principal Application Engineer for the company which is a subsidiary of De Beers. They make synthetic diamonds using the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique.

Tim's enthusiasm for his work was infectious as he impressed the audience with props including an infra-red camera and various practical examples of the stunning properties of his company's synthetic diamonds. These included its capacity to scythe through a block of ice and to etch engravings onto a granite slab. He also spoke of the many innovative uses of the diamonds in our modern economy, which ranged from acoustics and audio to drilling for oil and even blood sampling! Tim was expertly interviewed by Greg Simond & Joel Ellis and the quality of questions from the floor were of the highest standard too.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 CCF cadets flying high!

On Wednesday 14th November, we had the chance to fly on a grob tutor at Royal Air Force Benson. We had to get up at 5am in the morning to have a prompt start at 8am. Both of us, including 7 other CCF cadets from Eton were all excited for the experience, especially those who hadn't flown before. To ensure our safety, we had a 30 minute parachute training in case the pilot asked us to jump out of the aircraft due to emergency reasons, which includes pulling handles to lift the aircraft canopy and unbuckling ourselves from a seat belt with five straps and most importantly, to pull the parachute handle on the right shoulder with the left hand after diving out of the aircraft in the matter of seconds. Feeling extremely safe and confident in our newly acquired skill after the half-an-hour training on the command "jump, jump", we finally wore white heavy helmets with a microphone attached, a green flight suit and the parachute in the form of a backpack.

We had a chance to take control the grob tutor and to “verb” the air acrobatics such as the Looooooooooop … We felt sick after the experience!

Charlie Lancaster and Katie Yung

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Sonia's Lessons for Life Sonia Sharma, PMO Manager from Channel 4 was last night's visiting speaker before a Dudley Room packed with over 60 students! She brought a strong message of encouraging girls to have the confidence to follow a career in tech and also engaged our students in a thoughtful discourse around issues of gender and diversity in the workplace. She concluded with her three 'Lessons for Life' which involved being a life-long learner, loving what you do and prioritising the 'little things' which can help you achieve a bigger goal. It was an inspiring message from a warm and charismatic guest and one that left our students buzzing about afterwards!

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Sixth form and Scholars events this week Simon Dudley was our special guest this Thursday evening. It was fitting to host him on this day of Brexit turmoil and there was plenty of discussion on the merits of Theresa May's deal and how the Brexit endgame might play out. Rarely have we covered such a wide range of issues with a visiting speaker and, Brexit aside, interviewers, Danielle Hawkins & Louis Gregory, pushed Councillor Dudley on the housing crisis, free schools and austerity.

Questions also came thick and fast from our audience of over 50 students who were engaged throughout the hour-long session.

Twenty Holyport Economics students took up the opportunity to hear Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie from Cambridge University on Tuesday evening at Eton College.

She spoke of the link between education and economic growth. Does one promote the other? And, if so, which way round is it? It was a fascinating talk which took us from sixteenth century Germany to modern-day China in its evidence base and clearly had much to offer the discipline of Development Economics. ďƒ¨

Mr Alford would like to remind Sixth Form students and their parents and carers that the deadline for submission of their UCAS applications is next Friday, 23rd November. UCAS support workshops will take place on Wednesday as usual.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Upper Sixth Geographers hit London A few of the Upper Sixth Geographers headed into London on Thursday to spend the afternoon at a course run by the Geographical Association at the University of Westminster. During the afternoon they were taught how to get the best marks on their Geography independent investigation (coursework) by two former chief examiners.

The students came away brimming with ideas and feeling more equipped to polish off the last sections of their coursework which accounts for 20% of their overall grade.

Emilia Skirmuntt, an Evolutionary Virologist from Oxford University was this week's Visiting Speaker. She was expertly interviewed by Ellen Gilmore and Oscar Newman on a range of issues: from viruses in bats and dolphins, to global pandemics and how to get more girls into STEM subjects. She also talked about her academic journey from Warsaw University to

studying two different Masters courses in London and then to her current position at Oxford.

It was an inspiring and fascinating session!

Next week's speaker will be on Tuesday at 6.45pm (and not the usual Thursday). He is Scott Pepe, an accomplished debater, political activist and lobbyist for the National Farmers' Union.

It will be a must for Politics & Economics students. All other students are very welcome as usual! ďƒŞ

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Scott Pepe from the National Farmers' Union was our special visiting speaker this week. Before his present role, Scott ran the parliamentary office of an MP and as a student was President of Exeter University's Debating Union. A charismatic guest, there was no shortage of debate and the students enjoyed hearing some parliamentary gossip as well as engaging on issues such as Brexit, the monarchy and the role of pressure groups in society.

To finish off this term's Visiting Speaker Programme in style we have not one but TWO Visiting Speakers in next week!

We have Professor Almond from Reading University on Wednesday evening (6.45pm, Dudley Room). He’ll be talking astronomy and spectroscopy. And on Thursday evening (6.45pm, Dudley Room) we have Rachel Horton (again from Reading University) who will be talking Law, discrimination and #MeToo!

It's been a busy week in the school's debating scene as various contests between Herschel & Fawcett took place in the Dudley Room. These were the second series of semi-finals, the first having taken place last week. It's been particularly pleasing to see the contests so well supported and to see such vibrant floor debate!

The motions under debate this week concerned whether we should go vegetarianism, ban violent video games and if immigration causes more harm than good.

The Year 7,8&9 debate and the Y10&11 debates were both won by Herschel, while the Sixth Form debate went to Fawcett.

This means that both lower school finals next week will be between Herschel & Milton while the Sixth Form final will see Milton take on Fawcett! Finals are next week!

Y10/11 Final on Tuesday (4.45pm Dudley Room). Herschel are PROPOSITION. Milton are OPPOSITION. The motion is: ‘This House would censor music lyrics’.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Sixth Form trips This week a group of Sixth Form Chemistry and Biology students visited Syngenta, a local agrochemical company. The students were given a tour of the Biological and Chemical Sciences departments and were able to see first hand how agrochemicals are designed, synthesised and tested. Most impressive is the use of robotics to speed up routine testing and how complex all the processes are.

It was helpful to meet some of the scientists and to see the sort of jobs available to science graduates in this sector. It was a very interesting morning and thanks go to the Syngenta staff and to Mr Parsons for driving us. We were a bit late getting back and it was touch and go if we would make lunch - much relief when we did!

A group of Upper Sixth Geographers were invited by the Geography department at Eton to visit College Library to see an exhibition of historic maps. College library is an incredibly special area of Eton because it houses materials dating back to the 11th century. The materials in the library are so rare and precious that you cannot photograph them, students are not allowed to touch the pages of the books and can only use pencil to write notes to prevent ink damage.

The Head of Geography, Dr Anderson, kindly guided the students around the exhibition.

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SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Sixth form trips  Sixth Form Economics students attended a major conference in London this week. Shadow Chancellor John Macdonnell kicked off the day with a passionate attack on austerity and with his thoughts on the current Brexit standoff. He was followed by the likes of Leave campaigner Kate Hoey, MP and then the BBC Economics correspondent, Kamal Ahmed. Aside from Brexit, issues such as the UK's productivity gap, its low growth and the advent of the gig economy all featured alongside tips from examiners on how to enhance students' exam performance! 

On the 20th and 29th November our Year 13 historians had the opportunity to attend a series of lectures in London based on their A-level course. They listened to a range of historians talk and gained first hand experience of what undergraduate study is like.

Interestingly, the lecturers that had the biggest impact were the ones who didn't rely on power points/technology to explain their view and literally just talked to the students! The lectures provided the students with some valuable revision notes. It wasn't all work as they managed to get a little free time at lunch to explore the surrounding area and even the teachers managed to have a nice lunch!

On Tuesday eight students went to a lecture at Liverpool University London Campus about regeneration. The eight students attended lectures and took part in interactive activities. The event was fantastic and and really beneficial. 

SIXTH FORM REVIEW NOVEMBER 2018 Celebration of Achievement Evening Our annual Celebration of Achievement evening took place on Wednesday 28th November , at which we presented academic and sporting prizes for the academic year 2017/18. Professor Bill Lucas kindly agreed to be our guest speaker on the evening. It was lovely to see all the students, parents and carers at the event.

Sofia Romero (on the left) won the Dudleian Cup for the most academic progress made during 2017/2018. The winner of the prestigious Holyportian Cup was Juliette Salgado-Smith. The Holyportian Cup winner is voted for by staff and goes to the student they think has most embodied the spirit of Holyport College over the past year.

Lois Clark won a special prize for Community Spirit having instigated and organised our recent AntiBullying Day. 

Cameron Mobley and Maisie Russell were named our Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. The PE Department want to express how proud they are to be working with such talented students. 

Each department awarded a prize for every year group and also chose an overall winner for each subject.

Here are all our prize winners— many congratulations to you all. 

SIXTH FORM REVIEW DECEMBER 2018 D Company Eton College Combined Cadet Force Passing-Off Parade: 1515 Monday 3rd December 2018 On Monday 3rd December 2018, Holyport College cadets Katie Yung, Alice Calligaris, Zara Hawkins and Tabitha Clark made history by being the first female cadets in the passingoff parade at Eton College.

The introduction of females to CCF was approved by the old commanding officer Mike Wilcockson last year and we now have ten Holyport Cadets with 4 females joining Eton CCF. Major Jeremy Osborne was appointed Commanding Officer of the Eton College Combined Cadet Force at the start of September and has been working hard alongside Miss Loudoun and Miss Treacy to help integrate all the cadets into Eton CCF. A special thanks to Mr Walker for all his continued support over the last 3 years behind the scenes.

On the day the parade was held at McCrum Yard, between the Jafar Hall and the Birley Language Schools. The parade marks the end of the basic training phase of the cadet syllabus during which they have learned drill, skill at arms, basic navigation and fieldcraft. Cadets swapped their jungle hats for the berets as part of the parade marking the transition.

The short parade consisted of a demonstration of drill and an inspection and speech by the Llt Col James Gayner MBE- Commanding Officer of 7th Battalion The Rifles (@7RIFLES_CO).

SIXTH FORM REVIEW DECEMBER 2018 Sixth Form trips On Friday a groups of Sixth Form Geographers attended the annual Hazards Conference in London to broaden their knowledge of recent developments in the impacts and management of tectonic hazards. During the day there were a variety of lectures delivered by university lecturers and chief examiners.

A common theme discussed was that whilst there has not been an increase in tectonic events they are having far greater economic and social impacts due to the ever increasing global and urban population, with many mega cities being located in particularly exposed locations.

The highlight for Miss Lunney, and many of the students, was the lecture given by Professor Iain Stewart (he has made many TV documentaries about volcanoes and earthquakes).

During his lecture he discussed the possible impacts of potential future earthquakes, explaining how geographers are now able to decipher the approximate location and magnitude of these events although it is still impossible to predict exactly when they will occur. Professor Stewart’s key message was that “If you’re not going to study Geography at university … you’d better hope people smarter than you will”.

Over the last 2 weeks the Upper Sixth Biology students have visited the Bayer Baylab in Reading. Whilst there they completed a workshop using PCR and electrophoresis to determine whether they had the gene which makes people dislike brussel sprouts! This practical was one of the required experiments for the ALevel course, which they need to complete to be awarded the practical endorsement. 

SIXTH FORM REVIEW DECEMBER 2018 A Level Politics students enjoyed a great political day out on Monday at Westminster Central Hall.

They heard a range of major politicians speak to a packed conference and then take questions from passionate teenagers. The roster included Nigel Farrage, Chuka Umunna, Emily Thornberry, Jacob Rees -Mogg and Jess Phillips amongst others. Needless to say Brexit was the hot topic of the day but the speakers also covered issues ranging from anti-semitism in the Labour Party to sexual discrimination and from the cyber threat posed by Russia to the modernisation of the Commons.

It was a thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable event and students returned buoyed about their studies and even more argumentative in their politics lessons! ďƒŞ

Wednesday Scholars The Chemistry department was excited to invite professor Matthew Almond from Reading University. He gave an insight into the practical uses of spectroscopy in a wide range of fields.

He explained how light and matter interact in unique ways that allows us to identify the wallpaper in 500 year old huts in Turkey and the contents of stars 500 light years away. He showed how to catch the criminals of the future with a fingerprint left on clothing, which can be identified with super glue vapour and scanning with infrared light.

Students asked some great questions about the state of matter required for spectroscopy and the colours of different stars. They were reminded that red-hot is not actually all that hot, white hot is the colour that warns of extreme heat.

Spectroscopy could be a field that our budding young chemists apply to new medicines and exploring new corners of the universe!

Legal Academic holds Court!

We were delighted to welcome Dr Rachel Horton, a lecturer in law from Reading University, to bring this term's visiting speaker programme to a close last night. She was another popular speaker with an audience of well over 50 students filling up the Dudley Room.

Rachel was expertly interviewed by James Erridge & Nathali Gotora who had really done their homework on a vast number of legal cases in the news. These ranged from the 88 year old NHS worker who was claiming unfair dismissal on the basis of age discrimination to issues around the wearing of the headscarf in the workplace and sex discrimination. It was fascinating for students to hear Rachel's views on where the law stood on these issues at the moment and also the direction of travel. Why, one questioner asked, can age be a basis for discrimination whilst class cannot? What role would the mapping of the human genome and AI play in shaping the law in the future? And there were forays into the realms of free speech too. As UKIP flirts with Tommy Robinson where do we draw the line between free speech and hate speech, one student asked.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW DECEMBER 2018 Carol Service 2018

On Tuesday we had our annual carol service in Eton College’s glorious chapel. The Key Stage 3 Choir, Girls’ Chamber Choir and Anima all performed to a very high standard in their individual items and Combined Choir items. Particular highlights were the KS3 Choir’s joyous and uplifting ‘Bells of Christmas’ Medley arranged by Gilpin, Chamber Choir’s ‘Mid-Winter’ by Chilcott and Anima’s ‘Stille Nacht / Silent Night’. We were all bowled over by the magnificent arrangement of Coventry Carol by Mark Hayes, set over Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, which the Combined Choirs delivered with suitable drama and style.

Special congratulations to our soloists this year: Eloise White, Samara Anderson, Martha Pearce, Connor Jones, Jamie Harris and Hector Walker. You performed beautifully!

All the students in the choirs have been dedicated and an absolute joy to work with this term, and have worked so very hard to produce music of such a high standard in a very short time. Bravo!

SIXTH FORM REVIEW JANUARY 2019 Visiting speaker programme Spring term 2019 Next week’s speaker is an entrepreneur working in the beverage industry entitled “Breaking into the big supermarkets. How does a South African come to sell Cider in the UK?”. His cider was awarded Supreme Champion International Cider Challenge, as well as gold for Design and Packaging and bronze for Flavour. He makes a unique, all natural product using 100% fresh-pressed juice, no added sugar or concentrates, using only apples such as Granny Smith and Pink Ladies.

Speaker programme for the rest of the term:

Wednesday January 23rd: Tomas Pinto, Oxford University. Physicist. We’re talking rocket science and space exploration in the 21st century!

Wednesday January 30th: Julia Pearce. Life in Investment Banking and the City of London. What’s a career in finance like? What are the particular challenges facing women?

Wednesday February 6th: Jane Lunnon. Girls Day School Trust. Is there a future for single-sex education in the UK? + Feminism in an age of #MeToo.

Wednesday February 13th: Jamie Cameron. Research Assistant, Oxford Internet Institute. What challenges and opportunities are thrown up by the internet? We’ll be discussing social media, online dating, artificial intelligence and more...

Wednesday February 27th: Dave Leal, Brasenose College, Oxford. A hands-on session to make your brain explode from a top Oxford philosopher!

Wednesday 6th March: Wayne Dixon, Christian Connections in Schools. Faith in an Age of Reason. What does it mean to be a Christian in the 21st century?

SIXTH FORM REVIEW JANUARY 2019 Oxford Union Debating Competition Four pairs of Sixth Form students represented Holyport College admirably at the Oxford Union’s Schools debating competition on Thursday this week. Over 60 teams participated in the South Central regional round held at Magdalen College School in Oxford and our 8 students certainly did the College proud.

The format of debating is British Parliamentary, which seemed highly appropriate given that the British Parliament was debating the Vote of No Confidence Motion at exactly the same time. Each pair had just 15 minutes to prepare for the debate and use logic and reasoning to convince the judge why they made the strongest case. Everyone got to debate two motions – the first being on Violent Video Games and the second on whether we should arm the Police. Although none of the Holyport teams made it through to the finals day – they certainly gained a lot out of the experience and we have already set up a friendly fixture against Oxford International College later in the term.

SIXTH FORM REVIEW JANUARY 2019 Lower Sixth Oxbridge Programme Launched

On Tuesday this week, Dr Jo Organ, Brasenose College, Oxford’s outreach officer came to Holyport to speak to the L6 about the prospect of applying to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. He talked about how Oxford and Cambridge are more inclusive than the media lets on and that around 65% of Oxford Students come from State schools. He also mentioned that the thing that unites students at Oxford and Cambridge is the love for their subject, enthusiasm to explore new and complex ideas and not their educational background. The L6 were treated to a brief rundown of the application process and managed to ask a number of questions at the end. Dr Organ has promised to come in later in the year to help students who have decided to make an application.

We also now have Mr Hardee on board who in addition to being a qualified University Guidance Counsellor is an Oriel College Oxford PPE graduate.

Holyport College has a very good relationship with Brasenose College and Greg Simond has just received an offer to read Medicine there.

Annual Eton Quiz Night On Thursday evening, all Lower 6th students attended the annual quiz night at Eton College. This event is rapidly becoming a highlight of the College calendar with all Lower 6th students forming joint teams with students from Eton College. The quiz was a hard fought contest and the students enjoyed meeting their peers from Eton and having dinner in their boarding houses. We are very much looking forward to arranging a return fixture!

SIXTH FORM REVIEW JANUARY 2019 Senior Teams Enjoy Winning Start to the New Year

Wednesday afternoon showed some more great starts to the season for our senior sports teams.

The senior girls netball teams both won away to Claires Court 36-8 & 288. Super Results!

The senior boys took on the Super 8 football league kicking off vs Leighton Park and despite the conditions we battled to win all three matches.

2nd XI won 12-0 3rd XI won 8-0 4th XI won 1-0 What a great week of Sport. Well Done to all involved!

Yesterday evening, Sixth Form were given a crash course on everything from embracing their inner ‘hustle’ to how to start a business. Entrepreneur Karol Ostaszewski, the mastermind behind ‘Sxollie’ (a craft South African cider) gave us a unique insight into the realities of owning your own business, competing within a market dominated by two major powers and the sometimes unpredictable journey to success. It was interesting (and relieving for some) to learn that Karol’s journey to become a celebrated Pommelier wasn’t straightforward and it took a degree in languages, 4 years in accountancy and a first business in Australia for Sxollie to be born. It was exciting learn about Sxollie’s provenance and share in Karol’s enthusiasm for ‘home grown hustle’.

The evening couldn't be over without seeing what all the fuss was about. After tasting the infamous ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Pink Lady’ ciders, ‘Granny Smith’ was crowned the winner and confirmed the first, yet undeniably best craft cider Holyport Sixth Formers had ever tasted.

Fran Mobley