The Upper School Symposium Taking place every October, and now in its ninth year, the Upper School Symposium is a day of high-level interdisciplinary enquiry for all Upper School students, who are given a day off-timetable to attend a range of intellectually stimulating talks, workshops and seminars offered by visiting speakers, teachers and boys. The theme for 2018 was ‘Tradition and innovation’.
In addition to attending the keynote address, students choose from a programme of around 30 workshops and seminars given by teachers and contributors from the worlds of theatre, art and technology. This year, seminars and workshops included:
• Tradition and innovation in the British monarchy
• From matchboxes to talking billboards: tradition and innovation in advertising
Neuroscientist Annie Brookman-Byrne.
This year’s keynote speakers were cinematographer Richard Edwards-Earl, who discussed traditional narratives and innovative techniques in cinema, and neuroscientist Annie Brookman-Byrne, who explored innovation within the emerging discipline of educational neuroscience. ‘Symposium day was a breath of fresh air. It introduced me to completely new ideas, such as cinematography, as well as deepening my knowledge of subjects I am studying for A level.’ Henry, Year 13 ‘Given that I hope to become a cinematographer, Richard Edwards-Earl’s seminars gave me a great opportunity to discuss the details of working in the film industry with an expert in the field.’ Hugo, Year 12
• Innovative traditionalism: reactionary political thought after the French Revolution
• Emotion, emojis and electronic texts: communicating tone in the 21st century
• The physics of ballistics: military technology through the ages
• Public schools and the inventing of antiquity
• (Re)defining the African-American identity through cultural innovation
• Can we use chemical chaos to innovate?
• Neitzsche’s perspectivism: invention versus tradition Photography: a return to analogue
• Tradition or innovation within Labour party politics
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