Partnerships

We were delighted to re-establish our of our links with academic partner schools following the restrictions placed in previous years due to the pandemic. Our Autumn term Year 13 cross curricula Symposia with Eton, Whitgift and Queen Elizabeth’s School (QE Boys) remained online, but gave an opportunity for our students to hone their skills in research, argument, debate and presentation.

The Spring Term saw a return to our in-person style symposia and marked an opportunity for younger years to become involved with academic partner schools. We organised an Environment Day with QE Boys for Year 7 students, 24 students from Year 8 enjoyed an English symposium with Sacred Heart Language College and our IB workshop for Year 10, was an opportunity to showcase the IB Diploma Programme ahead of Sixth Form options was shared with Abbot’s Hill School.

In the Summer Term, Sacred Heart Language College joined us for a Year 7 music workshop and a philosophy conference for Year 9 students. Finally, in July we held a Year 10 cross curricula symposium with QE Boys involving the whole year group.

Whilst the main purpose of these events is to support the academic enrichment of the students and to advance their collaborative skills, a secondary purpose is to provide multi-disciplinary working in an environment with students from different school settings, including boys’ schools. This partnership working also provides opportunities for coeducational work to ensure the transition to this way of working at university is a smooth one.

ENGLISH SYMPOSIUM

Year 8 students joined with their counterparts from the Sacred Heart Language College in Harrow for a workshop exploring Shakespeare’s Henry V, and how it might be staged. The day’s activities consisted of learning about the play’s plot and themes alongside the technical aspects of staging. With the help of glossaries and secondary material on character, themes and motifs, the students then applied what they were learning to video clips from various productions. Such comprehensive knowledge was then put to work in preparing group presentations. The presentations were of an exceptionally high calibre.

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE – IB WORKSHOP

Year 10 students were joined by their peers from Abbot’s Hill School for an IB workshop. This forum provided an extended opportunity for the students to explore the core subject requirement of the Baccalaureate – Theory of Knowledge (ToK). Alongside an introduction to the various areas of knowledge potential Sixth Form IB students can expect to encounter – such as knowledge and technology and knowledge and indigenous societies – the students examined the nature of knowledge and how it is that we know things. Encouraged to deploy razor-sharp critical and open minds, the students considered issues surrounding the knowledge, such as the context of that knowledge, its source, its impetus, and how it has been delivered. The students returned to their learning environments as newly fledged and resourceful ‘knowers’, ready to navigate the world around them with even more of a spirit of enquiry.