On 17th March our year 8 and 9 academic scholars participated in our exciting first ‘Aiming for Excellence’ stretch and challenge conference. The conference was a gathering of young minds, designed to cultivate creativity, curiosity and critical thinking in a wide range of areas, exploring areas and questions outside of their current School curriculums.
Pupils were delighted to be meeting new people and working alongside other scholars from Hollyfield School, Newstead Wood, and Dunottar, developing their skills of collaboration, listening and teamwork.
They competed against each other in a comprehension race, as they learnt all about the Parthenon, in a Classics workshop. They considered the laws they would create if they were in charge of a society, and how they might punish people that broke them, in a Law session, and they considered their policy priorities if they were the government for a day, in a Politics workshop. Pupils also worked in groups to analyse the iconography and symbolism in portraiture, during an Art History session, and they debated the extent to which we have a duty to give financially to charitable causes, considering the moral philosophy of Peter Singer.
Pupils also heard a fascinating talk about life and careers in the armed forces from two army officers. They also received a session from our Director of Careers & Guidance about how days such as these can be so useful to develop the key skills that will be needed for future careers
such as complex problem-solving, reasoning, critical thinking, and resilience and perseverance.
Between all of these workshops, pupils worked on fun, but very challenging, logic puzzles to see how many they could solve!
Categories: Senior School