Enriching lecture programme for Year 12

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enrichment week, IBM, Leon McCarron, RHS, royal hospital school, sixth form, the royal hospital school

Year 12 were treated to an exciting enrichment programme following their AS examinations at the end of the summer term. This included a UCAS convention and a variety of fascinating lectures culminating in a talk on life lessons learnt whilst crossing the Gobi desert by Leon McCarron.

Former pupils Natasha Green and Kate Harmer, both of whom are currently on a placement year with IBM, spoke about wider options post-RHS with IBM’s Dare to be Different programme. Angela Findlay gave a powerful lecture on WW2 perspectives from the German side: her grandfather was a highly decorated General in the Wehrmacht fighting on the Eastern Front and Angela tied in her own family connections with reflections on the way Germans have coped with the legacy of the war since 1945.

And, Leon McCarron took the enthralled audience 3000 miles on foot across the Gobi desert from the Mongolian border down to Hong Kong on the Pacific coast, describing the highs and lows of the journey alongside the life lessons which inevitably accompany such a trek.

 

 

Team Building Weekend for 100 new Sixth Form pupils

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RHS, sixth form, Student team building, the royal hospital school, Year 12

On the first weekend of term over 100 Year 12 pupils took part in a team building day which was held to help new students and those moving up from Year 11 to get to know each other and settle into the new academic year. The day consisted of three sessions:

In the first session everyone had to design and construct air powered rockets to meet with certain criterion. Not only did this test communication skills but also their creative thinking and problem solving skills.

The second session focused mainly on leadership skills. Pupils had to construct a catapult and also navigate an obstacle course while blindfolded. This tests how people trust in their leader!

The final session was focused around team work. Using giant ‘Meccano’ sets within certain time and design constraints, this challenge taught pupils planning skills and the benefits of learning from others and explaining their own ideas to the group.

The day was a great success and, most importantly, lots of fun as everyone got to know each other and settled back into school life.

RHS Spanish Trip to Valladolid

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education, educational trip, RHS, royal hospital school, sixth form, Spain, spanish trip, the royal hospital school, Valladolid, year 11

During the first week of the Easter holidays, a group of GCSE and A Level pupils travelled to Valladolid. They stayed with Spanish families and had the chance to learn about Spanish culture and way of life. They also completed an intensive 5-day Spanish course, took part in cultural activities and enjoyed a reasonable amount of free time to explore Valladolid and see some Easter processions and celebrations, although rain meant that a number of these were unfortunately cancelled.

RHS students in Segovia

The programme of activities included a visit to the beautiful town of Segovia, a workshop in a Museum of Modern Art, a guided visit to Valladolid and cooking lessons. With the help of a Spanish chef, they cooked a delicious sample of traditional Spanish and Castilian dishes: tortilla de patatas, sopas de ajo, huevos rotos and torrijas. They also visited a Shopping Centre and went to the cinema to see The Croods in Spanish, still managing to get most of the jokes.

Their time with the host families gave them an insight into the lifestyle of Spanish families and also provided the opportunity to do and see things which were not included in the programme. For example, Felicity Slatter and Kathryn Matous spent a couple of hours in a primary school, helping the children with their English and answering their questions in Spanish; William Anstey and Sean Cuddihy had the intense experience of watching a football game between Spain and France surrounded by Spanish fans; Victoria Foreman, Tabitha Palmer and Tapashya Sunuwar are now experts on Castilian gastronomy thanks to the extensive menu of traditional homemade food that their Spanish ‘mother’ prepared for them every day and Jessica Richardson became addicted to chocolate con churros.

Hola!

The Spanish trip was really enjoyable. The food, families and lessons were all Spanish and after a week of having to constantly listen I have found that my Spanish has improved no end. The most enjoyable part of the trip was the family that I stayed with; they were incredibly kind and were the most amazing cooks.

 Parents and pupils can view more pictures of the trip on the school intranet:

https://intranet.royalhospitalschool.org/modern-foreign-languages/spanish/viaje-a-valladolid—semana-santa-2013

Eminent Philosopher and Author visits Sixth Formers at RHS

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Academic, grayling, humanities, Professor, RHS, royal hospital school, sixth form, the royal hospital school

Professor Anthony Grayling, eminent philosopher, author and founder of the ‘New College of the Humanities’ (NCH), visited the Royal Hospital School to address the Sixth Form on Friday 1 March.

Professor Anthony Grayling

As well as a Professor of Philosophy, Anthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon), FRSL, FRSA is Master of the New College of Humanities, which awards degrees as part of the University of London and is an independent undergraduate college, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford.

In his address to Sixth Form pupils he spoke passionately about the importance of the humanities for the flourishing of human beings and humanity as a whole. After the fascinating lecture, many pupils stayed behind to quiz him about the New College of Humanities and to explore further with him the many literary and philosophical allusions he had made during his talk.

Professor Grayling has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are “The Good Book“, “Ideas That Matter”, “Liberty in the Age of Terror” and “To Set Prometheus Free”. “The God Argument” will be published in March 2013. For several years he wrote the “Last Word” column for the Guardian newspaper and a column for the Times. He is a frequent contributor to the Literary Review, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Times Literary Supplement, Index on Censorship and New Statesman, and is an equally frequent broadcaster on BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service. He writes the “Thinking Read” column for the Barnes and Noble Review in New York, is the Editor of Online Review London, and a Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine. In addition he sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British philosophical association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. Anthony Grayling was also a Fellow of the World Economic Forum for several years, and a member of its C-100 group on relations between the West and the Islamic world. He has served as a Trustee of the London Library and a board member of the Society of Authors and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2003 he was a Booker Prize judge, in 2010 a judge of the Art Fund prize and in 2011 a judge for the Wellcome Book Prize. He supports a number of educational charities and is a sponsor of Rogbonko School in Sierra Leone.

After his lecture, Professor Grayling joined twelve pupils and some members of staff for dinner and he delivered an after-dinner talk on epistemology with humour and fluency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euYZu5jb6eA&feature=player_embedded

For more information http://www.acgrayling.com