Spring term is where our current Year 9 (Fourth Form) have turned their focus to their GCSE options. After a term of settling in and exploring and enjoying their learning across the curriculum, they are now reflecting on which subjects to choose for the remainder of their time in the Lower School.

To this end, the Fourth Form attended an Options Evening at the end of January where they were able to speak to subject teachers, explore future courses and hear from Mr Benson and colleagues about some of the pitfalls around choosing options. They will make their final subject choices shortly before Easter.

The Options Event was preceded by workshop sessions led by Mr Gill and the Classics Department to introduce pupils to Classics GCSE, a subject not currently taught in the Key Stage 3 Curriculum. Pupils were exposed to aspects of the course, including myths and legends, literature and architecture as they developed a taste for this fascinating subject.

With end-of-year progress examinations on the horizon, we were delighted to welcome the Elevate team into School in early February to share some amazing hints and tips around boosting memory. Pupils contemplated strategies designed to ensure they approach revision and learning with attention, enhance their capacity to store information in their long-term memory and devise how best to ensure they are able to retrieve that knowledge at the appropriate time. As the Elevate team explained, the key to making these memory strategies stick is to try them out immediately – which strategies will our Fourth Form employ to prepare for their core exams just before Easter?

Watch our quick reel on everything the Fourth Form got up to with Elevate here.