St Edward's Super Curriculum

OXFORD – A UNIVERSITY CITY

The city of Oxford is an ever present influence on school life. Pupils have the opportunity to visit parts of the University and to attend lectures within the colleges and faculties. This year pupils attended an open Alfred Landecker Trust lecture hosted by the Blavatnik’s School of Government and given by the journalist Jonathan Freedland. Freedland spoke about Rudolf Vrba, a Slovak-Jewish biochemist who, as a teenager in 1942, was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. George Wright, Fifth Form pupil, commented that ‘this was a hugely insightful talk. I found it thought-provoking, and I think I can say the same for everyone in that room.’ Oxford is home to numerous museums and galleries, each situated within a short distance of the School. This year, pupils studying Jewellery at A Level visited the Museum of Natural History and the adjoining Pitt Rivers Museum to investigate a range of artefacts to inspire their work. Several trips were made to the Ashmolean Museum for those studying Classics. Visiting the Western

Art Print Room, a group of Art History pupils were blown away by 500-year-old sketches from some of the old masters – ‘to see the works of art we are studying in the flesh was awesome’ (Grace Vaughan Williams, Upper Sixth pupil). Oscar Piney, also in the Upper Sixth, remarked that ‘as we returned to school on the bus, chatter was lively on the beauty of what we had seen, and our sheer luck in attending a school only 15 minutes away from such a place of magic.’ The North Wall Arts Centre, built on the site of the School’s Victorian swimming pool, has a dynamic and inspirational public theatre, gallery and artist development programme. Theatre-lovers also have access to the Oxford Playhouse, which has been at the epicentre of the arts in Oxford since it was opened in 1938. This year the pupils saw Please Right Back , fresh off the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and a witty retelling of Jane Austen’s classic in Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of) ; both of which they used to develop their review skills.

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