On the 9th February we visited John Henry Newman Catholic College to be part of a debate which assessed whether The Great War is commemorated in the right manner in England and the UK.  After a more physical view of what the war was like, through the presentation of uniforms, guns and other lethal weapons used in the First World War, five experts on this topic led the debate, with several questions asked by students from different schools. I think it was a great experience in order to get an insight into different people’s thoughts and views on the topic. There was, of course, plenty of questions from us, who were keen to challenge the views and opinions of the experts. We looked at the ways other countries commemorate the First World War, and argued whether we do enough to commemorate the war, and everyone who fought in it. It gave me a deeper understanding of what the war really means to countries around the world, and how they continue to remember it even almost 100 years after the armistice was signed.  (Abdullah Naveed, 11A)

The trip to John Newman Catholic College informed us about World War 1 and how we view and remember it today. It opened with a very intriguing segment in which we learnt about the different aspects of life in the trenches and how soldiers had to deal with them. It also showed me how much WW1 affected our culture and language to this day. For example, words such as “sneakers” and “chat” came from WW1. The debate was also quite enlightening . The panelists talked about the different people who fought for the allies in WW1 like India as well as some countries in Africa, who they saw as forgotten, especially in countries like England when remembering the tragedies of World War 1. The panelists also informed us about the people who are overlooked when we commemorate the tragedies of WW1, including the children who were hired to replace fighting soldiers in coal mines, some of them as young as 12. Overall, I think that the trip was quite informative, mostly engaging and gave a detailed account of the Great War. (Matthew Baptiste, 11G)

UCAS published the university application figures for the 2018 cycle earlier this week and these show that, while the proportion of eighteen year olds applying for university through UCAS has risen, the absolute number of applicants has fallen by two point six per cent as a result of a smaller number of eighteen year olds compared with last year. The data also revealed that the gap between female and male applicants is large and growing. Forty-four point three per cent of female eighteen year olds applied to university compared with just thirty-one point eight per cent of males. UCAS said that if demand was equal between the sexes thirty-six thousand more men would have applied to university. Please click here to read more about this year’s application cycle on the UCAS website.

I was given the opportunity to attend ‘A-level Science Live: Chemistry’ in the University of Birmingham in order to hear some of Britain’s top Chemists speak about their areas of expertise and interests. We were given practical tips and advice on how to do as well as we can in our Chemistry course through two examiner sessions; which personally benefitted me very much. These sessions involved revision techniques from organising your time months prior to examinations up until the day of the exam. The examiner identified many misconceptions and advised us on how to avoid the common mistakes that students usually make.

We listened to a series of five presentations by the following doctors/professors:

Professor Andrea Sella, ‘Mercury’

Dr Philip Ball, ‘Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry’

Dr Peter Wothers, ‘Atomic Orbitals’

Dr Jamie Gallagher, ‘Nanoinvasion’

Professor Lucy Carpenter, ‘Atmospheric Chemistry’

The majority of these presentations were very interesting and taught me a lot about the world of Chemistry. Professor Andrea Sella’s presentation was my favourite! He has a great passion for the ‘most beautiful, shimmering element of the Periodic Table’ – Mercury. He tells the story of Mercury, explaining the significance of this element not just for Chemistry, but also the development of modern civilisation. Other presentations although not as interesting helped me rule out exactly what I don’t want to peruse in my future career! I am grateful to be given this opportunity and I hope there are many more events like this to come.

Huda Benrekia

On the 26^th of January, we went to the university of Birmingham to attend the ‘A-Level Science Live: Chemistry’. It was here where we met 6 different scientists who have all studied different areas within chemistry, and delivered interesting presentations.

Professor Andrea Sella had touched on the element mercury, the most fascinating element within the whole of the periodic table. He suggested that it was the most fascinating as it as a metal, yet can move around in a liquid state. We found this particular presentation to have been the best to be on display all day. His passion for the element mercury was amazing. We had also received presentations by Dr. Philip Ball who mentioned that every experiment within chemistry, is simply ‘beautiful. Dr. Peter Wothers went on to talk about atomic orbitals. Further presentations went on to talk about topics such as Nanoparticles, and how they may play a huge part in our future, energy and the matter at the origin of life and finally, an around the world tour of atmospheric chemistry.

In the end, it was a very interesting day, and we all took important things away from it.

Trepavan Gill