year 12 supercurricular programme

Our supercurricular lecture programme has been successfully running throughout this year as we have welcomed guest and in-house speakers to deliver lectures to our students and those in the wider community (and we are looking forward to the next in the series this evening)!

In an exciting extension of this provision, Year 12 students are now being given the opportunity to present their own research interests to younger students, and are pictured at today's lunchtime launch meeting.

Head of Year Mr Neale opened the meeting by outlining the programme and time-frame to Year 12, and then introduced Mr Connell (who delivered the second of our guest lectures on Critical Theory) to inspire Year 12 with advice and guidance on effective speech-making, and the delivery of research findings.

Mr Connell used JFK's famous and lauded 1962 Rice University Stadium Space Race speech as his starter to outline modes of effective rhetoric and audience engagement, and as an exemplar of bridging the knowledge gap with your audience. His core advice to Year 12 for framing the delivery of their sessions to younger students comprised:

Know your topic

Know your audience

Find a way in

Hook your audience

Mr Connell and Mr Neale then tasked Year 12 with pitching their research presentations to the students around them, and they impressively demonstrated that they were already incorporating these invaluable pointers into their delivery.

It was fantastic to see and feel the level of energy in the room, and Year 12's enthusiastic commitment to embarking on this exciting new initiative; it will not only progress their own academic, personal and professional development, but will also contribute to whole school community enrichment and wider learning, and we can't wait to share updates as the programme develops. 

With huge thanks to our Year 12s for their level of participation, to Mr Neale for organising this fantastic opportunity, and to Mr Connell for his support.