Oakhamians of all ages have been enjoying virtual experiences this term from a variety of experts in their field. With social distancing measures meaning that our usual packed programme of visiting speakers to the School was unable to take place, Oakham’s teachers found alternative ways to bring outside speakers to ‘visit’ our pupils.
In October prior to completion of medical course applications, Form 7 (Year 13) candidates from Oakham School and Harington School participated in online practice clinical interviews with a distinguished panel of guest interviewers from the field of medicine, including three Old Oakhamians: Dr Megan Nagel (14), Dr Rayyan Anwar (11) and recent medical graduate Surgeon Lt Issy Guy RN (14).
In November, Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton, was interviewed virtually by Form 5 pupils as part of their Citizenship GCSE coursework.
The pupils asked Ms Kearns, who sits on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, for her views on global human rights’ abuses currently taking place against the Uighurs in China and the SARS police brutality protests in Nigeria.
In December, international award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick paid a virtual visit to all Lower School pupils talking to them about how he gets inspiration for his novels and answering the many questions the pupils had prepared for him.
Form 6 pupils studying Critical and Contextual Studies were fortunate to listen to Meghan Goodeve, curator and educator, who works for Yorkshire Sculpture International, who gave an engaging virtual talk about her career; from how she went from studying History of Art at the Courtauld Institute in London to developing programmes for participation in galleries across the country.
