Siena Society holds inaugural lecture with renowned explorer, Fran Sandham, on Thursday March 10th.

A new St Catherine's venture, the Siena Society-whose ambition is to expose our students to a wealth of varied and exciting speakers- is delighted to invite Fran Sandham (explorer and writer) to present our inaugural lecture. On Thursday, March 10th at 4pm in the Drama Studio, Fran will recount some of the experiences he encountered on his epic, solo walk from the Skeleton Coast in Namibia to Zanzibar in Mozambique. No one else has ever walked across this notoriously barren and unforgiving stretch of wilderness (some 3000 miles) and this talk promises to be truly awe-inspiring.

St Catherine's students to attend Festival of Leadership at Wellington College

A group of 4 senior girls selected from Years 11 and 12 will attend a pupil-led conference on leadership at Wellington College on March 11th. The conference is open to students (Years 11-13) from any school in the country and offers the unique opportunity for participants to re-think what it means to lead others.
A rich and diverse programme, including workshops run by students from Wellington, KCS Wimbledon  and Dulwich College, will allow our pupils to evaluate themselves as leaders, and there will be plenty of opportunities for them  to meet students from other schools to discuss the values that real leadership entails.

Russell Group universities definitely favour 'hard' subjects

The UK's top universities recently published a guide which acknowledges officially for the first time that they favour students who study traditional subjects at A-level.

The guide, produced in collaboration with the Institute of Career Guidance and compiled by the Russell Group, a group representing Oxford, Cambridge and 18 other leading universities, confirms rumours that they favour 'harder' subjects over 'softer' ones such as Media Studies or Sociology.

The guide also reveals a clear preference for Science and Maths subjects at A level – even for apparently unrelated degrees. Similarly some Russell Group universities require a language at GCSE, even if your degree is not in languages.

The publication makes it clear that many degrees at competitive universities will closed to you unless you study at least two of the following subjects in the Sixth Form – Maths, English, Geography, History, any of the three Sciences, a Classical or Modern Foreign Language

"If you plan to take more than one perceived 'soft' subject, some caution may be needed," the guidebook warns.

See www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/04/university-places-traditional-subjects-a-levels for a fuller report.

Update on university tuition fees

Under the coalition government's new plans, from Autumn 2012 universities will be able to charge its students a maximum  of £6000 per year for tuition. Only in exceptional cases will universities be able to charge its students up to a possible £9000 per year.
Maintenance loans will be available to all irrespective of income and graduates will not make a contribution towards repaying their tuition costs until they are earning at least £21,000. The repayment will be on 9% of income earnings above £21,000 with all outstanding repayments being written off after 30 years.
A real rate of interest will be charged on loan repayments but with a progressive taper. For graduates earning below £21,000 there will be no real rate of interest applied to their loan. For graduates earning between £21,000 and £41,000, a real rate of interest will start to be charged, reaching a maximum of RPI plus 3%.

Molesey Boat Club and St Catherine's Form Partnership

St Catherine's are delighted to announce their official partnership with the leading rowing club of the area. Molesey Boat Club is internationally renowned as being the breeding ground for some of the UK's finest rowers, including numerous former Olympic champions.
The school already has several pupils who are members of MBC but this new initiative will put St Catherine's at the forefront of a sport at which the UK leads the world.
Opportunities will exist for any St Catherine's student in Years 11, 12 or 13, able to match MBC's stringent entry requirements, to apply for a Rowing Scholarship. The lucky recipients of these scholarships can expect to have all their MBC costs paid for them, including membership, training camps and race entry fees.

Sixth Formers to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau

Later this term Mr Pearson will accompany two Year 12 students to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The visit is part of an accredited course run by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The day visit to Poland is just one part of the course: before and after the visit the students will take part in seminars in which they hear first-hand testimonies from holocaust survivors  and discuss the lessons that can be learnt from the atrocities.
On completion of the course the students are considered to be 'Ambassadors' for the programme and will themselves give talks and assemblies to the school and the local community.

Should compulsory academic education finish at 14, not 16?

In an effort to deal with a shortage of young people with good vocational skills, the current government is planning to permit children to leave school at 14, should they then wish to study a vocational course at one of 12 specialist colleges.

According to the Tory Peer, Lord Baker of Dorking, former Education Secretary, 14 is a good age to be making career choices: 'Eleven is too soon to chose, 16 is too late;14 is the right age of transfer'.
However, Christine Blower, the General Secretary of the NUT disagrees, stating: 'It is not acceptable that at the age of 14 pupils may be forced into specific learning routes which could restrict their education or career choices. Attempting to separate technical or vocational education from mainstream schools is socially divisive and will lead to a 2-tier system with technical schools being seen as the poor cousin.'

This proposal from the coalition government comes after the former Labour Education Minister, Estelle Morris, claimed that more students would stay in education if GCSEs were sat at 14, not 16, with those who wanted to pursue non-academic, vocational skills, having the opportunity to study relevant courses at a younger age.

Some will say that such a proposal will give those children who are more practically minded, a better chance of securing a career earlier in life, rather than encouraging them to stay on in 'main-stream' academic education and end up with a 'fluffy and worthless' degree from a half-baked 'university'. Whilst others will say this will widen class divisions even more than they are at present. What do you think?