Fourth Formers Get Curious About New Subjects In Interactive Workshops

Published by Wellington College on Friday 12th of April 2024

After the Easter break, Wellington fourth formers will have the chance to get curious about new subject areas that they could consider in sixth form and beyond. Director of Academic Extension, Amanda Campion, has organised thirteen hands-on workshops designed to give pupils a taste of a wide range of subjects from Law and Economics to History of Art, Archaeology and Music Tech.

All of the subjects are beyond the current curriculum but the workshops are not related to the Subject Choice sessions run in fifth form. Rather, they aim to encourage pupils to look to the future and find out more about a variety of topics that are currently unfamiliar to them – some of these might be potential A-Level or IB subjects, and some would only be offered at university.

The programme was first created in 2021, initially designed for the academic scholars but immediately opened up to all students due to interest, it has grown each year both in terms of the number of pupils signing up and the number of workshops. The sessions are usually run by Wellington teachers with interest, expertise — and in many cases a degree — in the specific subject area. For this year’s Law workshop, two Old Wellingtonians who are now undergraduate law students, are returning to campus to run the session.

The workshops are interactive, dynamic and informal, designed to spark curiosity and prompt further exploration. In previous Economics workshops, photos of news items have been displayed around the classroom and the fourth formers have been challenged to work out what’s going on in each picture and how it relates to economics.

The workshops will run from 23rd April to 23rd May in the following subject areas:

Mechanics
Linguistics
History of Art
Psychology
Theology
Number Theory
Philosophy
Law
Archaeology and Ancient History
Economics
Music Tech
Environmental Science and Social Anthropology

Most fourth-formers have signed up for three or four workshops. Typically, each session will be attended by 20-30 pupils with the exception of Law and Economics which each have over 100 students signed up already.

After each workshop, pupils are invited to do ten hours of additional research into the subject area over the summer holidays. The onus is on pupils to decide how to do this but teachers will provide a few suggested sources to get them started. The research is expected to be practical and engaging and could be as simple as watching ‘The Big Short’ to find out more about economics, or visiting an art gallery to explore the history of art. In September, each workshop teacher will host a pizza evening where pupils can share insights from the research they’ve done, pick up ideas from each other and discuss the topic again.

We hope that the workshops will introduce new areas of study and will spark an interest in subjects pupils may have never previously considered.