Glyn School pupils given a good talking to – and so are their families

Pupils of the Glyn School in Ewell and their families could all be in for a learning experience as the school’s annual series of enrichment lectures resumes after the half-term break.

Aimed primarily at sixth formers, to give them an idea of what they might expect at university, this year the talks have been thrown open to all members of the school and some are also being held in the evening, open to family members, to give them an insight into what goes on academically at the school.

Topics on the agenda over the coming weeks include such diverse themes as "Whatever happened to the British Empire?", leukaemia research, graphic design, the ebola outbreak and the writings of American novelist John Steinbeck.

“The aim of the lectures is to encourage intellectual curiosity and a love of learning,” said sixth form tutor Jamie Bell, who organises the talks. “The classroom environment and the demands of the curriculum only allow us so much time to teach pupils, but particularly when it comes to those who are about to leave and go off to university, there’s so much more we would like to expose them to, to stimulate their minds – and the format of a series of talks is the perfect vehicle for doing that."

Already, the 2014-15 lecture series has addressed topics such as natural disasters, physics, ethics and the importance of reading, and Mr Bell said he had high hopes for the success of the remainder of the talks. “The lectures we had in the 2013-14 academic year proved hugely popular, so that’s why we’ve expanded things this year,” he explained. “I only hope we can repeat it and look forward to even bigger and better things next year.”