Peter Davison

Jonathan Slater, Permanent Secretary for Education and other senior DfE colleagues visited Southmoor, recognising our work in raising aspirations and securing high standards.

We saw the Sunderland Symphony Orchestra arrive to work with 120 instrumentalists from Southmoor and primary feeders Hudson Road, Hill View and Grangetown. At the end of the event they performed Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ and Mussorgsky’s ‘A Night on Bare Mountain’. Watch part of their performance clicking here or below.

The fourth seminar of the OxNet series focused around Translation and Philosophy.  Students prepared by studying medieval works that were translated from Arabic into Latin. By the end of the session, students had a good idea of what makes science and philosophy different – science gives you an answer, whereas philosophy gives you a question.

Year 12 students aspiring to become medical doctors attended a series of workshops with Newcastle University covering all aspects of the application process. The sessions were tailored to the students’ individual needs and provided them with the skills needed to make a competitive UCAS application.

Researchers from Sunderland University held a focus group with Sixth Form students to help their study into how young people access the alcohol and drugs service in Sunderland known as the Youth Drug & Alcohol Project (YDAP).  Participants offered feedback, ideas and opinions from the age group the project will be targeting.

Students from Year 12 and 13 spent five days in Iceland over half term making lifelong memories including a humpback whale sighting and visiting the many waterfalls, fissures, glaciers as well as spectacular Geysirs.  They spent time in the secret lagoon (a natural geothermal hot spring) plus a night looking at the stars and Aurora Borealis in the designated dark …

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