Academic Enrichments

Our Enrichment lectures offer students the opportunity to attend a 30-minute university-style lecture every week. This initiative aims to foster a love of learning outside the traditional classroom environment. The lectures are enormously popular and we usually have between 50-100 pupils attend each week.

The lectures are led by staff and Sixth Form students and the topics covered are designed to challenge and inspire students. The programme encourages our Sixth Form students to take a leadership role in the school community and learn the valuable life skill of presenting complex ideas to a large audience.

At the heart of this programme is choice. Students choose to attend those lectures which appeal most to them. For those who do not want to attend a lecture, we run a series of enrichment sessions designed to encourage debate and extend the students’ knowledge of current affairs and contentious modern issues such as AI and censorship.

  • General lecture topics:
    • Women in STEM
    • The holocaust – a personal story
    • Crime and punishment in late medieval England
    • Untranslatable words 
    • Women’s voices in poetry in the ancient world
    • What is the unconscious, and how can it explain the bully?
    • How to ‘read’ film with a critical eye 

     

  • Sixth Form lecture topics:
    • Why do we dream?
    • What are the moral responsibilities for those who choose to protest
    • Who really won the space race in the 1960s
    • Will Artificial Intelligence take over the world?
    • The use of digital technology in sport

Beacon Enrichment

The Beacon is an independent project, giving our students the opportunity to explore a topic of their interest. The Beacon is launched at the beginning of the Autumn Term and the students then work at their own pace to complete a presentation on a topic of their choice. This freedom of research and creativity is an asset to the students as it allows them to showcase their super-curricular interests; an opportunity for them to teach something to the Tormead community. 

The Clayton Academic Scholars’ Programme

All of our scholars become part of our Clayton Society. They are invited to lectures and workshops throughout the academic year and attend the annual Scholar’s Dinner. The society’s name, ‘Clayton’ derives from a former headteacher of Tormead between 1915-35, Miss Clayton. ‘Clayty’ to her pupils, Miss Clayton oversaw the moving of the school to its present building and had the gumption to help her pupils through the turbulent years of the First World War, where Zeppelins were watched from the upstairs windows. Although a Music teacher, and fond of singing the songs of Gilbert and Sullivan throughout the school, Miss Clayton and her sister also taught current affairs each week. It is this desire for her pupils to know more about the world and her example of being resourceful, resilient and cheerful that has given her name to our scholars’ society, to our own ‘Claytys’. 

“It was a pleasure to be invited to speak to the Tormead scholars, and to have the opportunity to share with them my fascination with story in all its forms. It is fantastic that these girls have the opportunity to engage with learning beyond the classroom, exploring subjects, experiences and thinking outside the curriculum: it was a privilege to be able to share a little of my own academic passions with the leaders and changemakers of tomorrow”

Where next?

Senior

STEM