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Photo by Tania Hawes

RHS Gifted and Talented Programme

Tania Hawes —

The RHS Gifted and Talented Programme has had a super two terms of events, with even more activities lined up in the coming months.

Since Easter, our Philosophy group has been back in action, with meetings occurring after school every Thursday in H3. Yet again, we have been lucky to entice the ever so inspirational PHD student, Michael Couch to take these sessions. At the beginning of each week, Michael posts a topic on our Facebook Philosophy page for the students to ponder, before the vigorous Thursday discussion begins. 

Unfortunately, at the end of Term 2, due to a lack of funding it did not seem that this group would be able to continue. However, in a wonderful display of commitment, Brylea Hollinshead 13HW, took it upon herself to embark on a fierce fundraising campaign. Thanks to her efforts, these sessions will now continue until the end of Term 3.

Meanwhile, during Term 2, a selection of students from Year 11 partook in the Senior GATE Conference held at Cashmere High School. This year’s event included presentations by Julie Arliss, a distinguished lecturer from King’s College, London, and Jeffery Hodges, the founder and director of “Sportsmind”, an international institute for human performance research, based in Australia. Together, they produced a fantastic array of intellectually engaging material which both challenged and enthused our participants.

Then, much to our delight and surprise, at the beginning of Term 3, our Junior students were invited to attend a specially developed Junior GATE Conference, which was facilitated again by Julie Arliss and held at Cashmere High School. This was the first time RHS had been invited to a junior event of this type, and there was considerable competition to attend. During the course of the day, students were introduced to the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, and the science of Quantum Mechanics. They were then encouraged to use their newly gained knowledge in small group discussions and large group debates. As anticipated, they left mentally exhausted but fizzing for more.

In the coming weeks, there will be further external activities on offer including a trip to the “Writers and Readers Festival”, plus term 4 will see the return of our famous Junior GATE Week, with opportunities for enrichment galore. Please don’t forget, should you like to increase your own understanding and awareness of what it is to be gifted, there is material available on our school Moodle site, just look for GATE @ RHS.