Ms Cooper and Mr Ryan been running Talk Shop this year. This is a Friday lunchtime society that offers staff, students and outside speakers a place to talk about things they’re passionate about.
“We’ve had everything from musical performances to the beauty of Mathematics in the natural world. This half-term, we have a menu chock-full of veganism, DNA, psychopathy and prejudice,” says Mr Ryan. “Talk Shop is open to all years and students can sign up on SOCS. We were delighted to hear that 50 popped in for the first one!
“At the end of each talk, the speaker sets an interactive challenge for those in the audience to go away and have a think about. This might involve art, design, physical activity, experiments… who knows!”
These challenges are set on Firefly and students can email their responses to Mr Ryan, with the best displayed online each week. All talks will be recorded and made available to the school community.
So far this term, Miss Boorman has taken us through the trials and tribulations of her allotment journey in a talk entitled, ‘Sweet Chard of Mine’. Her challenge to those in the audience was to get hold of a vegetable that they had never cooked with before; to find a recipe including it that they had never eaten before; to cook it, and to submit a photo along with a rating out of ten according to how delicious – or not – it was!
Lower Sixth student, Ella Sullivan-Martin, has also delivered a talk entitled ‘Forget it! Memory and how it works’. In it, she explores why memories sometimes play tricks on us and how to remember things more easily.
Mr Ryan adds: “Our aim is to encourage as many students as possible to attend and take part, creating a lively online forum of ideas. So, please do get involved!”
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