2 minute read
Academic Enrichment
Claire Danson
Sir Alan Yarrow Alun Cairns
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Cameron Parker
We have had another bumper year of speakers for our enrichment programme, which has been a hybrid of live and remote speakers.
With the inception of platforms such as MS Teams, the future is exciting for the speaker programme as they are able talk to us from anywhere in the world!
Sir Alan Yarrow, former Lord Mayor of the City of London, was fi rst on the programme for this year. He talked about ‘Big Finance’ and what we all needed to know about how the economy worked. He then enjoyed a lively Q and A as students, parents and teachers all wished to know more.
Alun Cairns MP, former Secretary of State for Wales, did a triad of activities for our community. He did a Q and A with the A Level Politics students, had supper with younger students with a passion for Politics, and then spent an evening being questioned by Mr Woodgate for a hybrid live and remote audience. It was such a pleasure to welcome Mr Cairns to Kingswood for the fi rst time and enjoy his expertise.
Claire Danson, sister of Olympic Hockey Champion Alex Danson, told her personal story of how she was paralysed by a freak accident and then bounced back quite extraordinarily. Claire was run over by a tractor when out for a cycle ride and almost lost her life, but has managed to reset her goals and ambitions and achieve great things. Recently, Claire completed a 255km triathlon, which highlights what real resilience and grit are, and our audience learnt a great deal about how to set goals and how to refl ect on those goals. Cameron Parker is a motivational speaker who really engaged with his audience. Again, he spoke brilliantly about what it is to be resilient, how to set targets and that people should not be afraid of working hard! We were fortunate to also welcome Cameron to talk to our Year 12 students during General Studies as he helped them refl ect on their goals for the future and how they could realistically achieve them.
Aside from the Wesley Society talks, many enrichment talks have been held on a departmental level. These are all crucial adjuncts to our guest speaker programme and inspire students to follow their subject above and beyond the confi nes of the curriculum.
