Academic Talks and Trips

We have been fortunate to have some excellent talks by visiting academics in recent years, including a former editor of the Financial Times. This year, Professor David Holt, a pioneering chemist who developed a highly profitable business gave some great insights into some complex biochemistry techniques and how some risk-taking led to his business successes.  Read more about his talk below under “A Bioanalytical Visit”.

The History Department have visited the University of Derby for a lecture and tour around their facilities.  History students in 2024-25 will be able to use the university library for carrying out their coursework.

The Geography Department have also been to talks by Tim Marshall, author of ‘Prisoners of Geography’ and ‘The Future of Geography’, and by Simon Reeve, from the BBC documentary series.

Downing Street talk:  inspiring social policy

This year we have continued to have some excellent input from Alice Matthews, our former student who works in the Policy Delivery Unit in Downing Street. This is a unit of the civil service which helps to ensure the Prime Minister’s priorities are delivered.

When she last visited, in 2022, Alice was deputy director for Crime and Justice. Now she is Director, and Deputy Head of the whole unit and has worked with closely with four different Prime Ministers and several Home Secretaries.

Alice spent the day with us. She started in year 7 assembly, talking to students about how she studied Modern Languages at university, which widened her outlook on the world and gave her the confidence and enjoyment of travelling. She then talked about the great opportunities she had in the Ministry of Defence, the Passport Office and the Home Office. Alice said she enjoys helping to make life better for people, especially in vulnerable circumstances.

A Level History students are studying modern British politics, and they were given a great insider’s view on how Downing Street feels, as a centre of power. It is, after all, a house; and Alice talked about the effect of having many small rooms inside it, and how that feels. This prompted the class to consider what it might have been like for Margaret Thatcher when the tide turned against her, or the secret meetings that Lloyd George managed to have there in the early 1900s.

Alice then set students some real challenges which she has faced in government. Small mixed groups of students from years 7, 8 ,9, 10 and sixth form worked together to decide what they would do with the following challenges.

  • Reducing knife crime in young people, when a spike was predicted at the end of lockdown 2021.
  • Tackling modern British slavery. Students were asked to come up with a publicity campaign to help ensure that information was passed to the authorities to help people in need. This was the project that Alice had said was very emotive, but very rewarding to lead.
  • Saving a public relations problem created in the civil service.
  • Keeping morale high during lockdown in a department which was based throughout the UK.

Students then asked lots of questions about what it was like to work in the heart of government where decisions are made. Alice feels she has the chance to make a difference by suggesting solutions and implementing policies which can improve people’s lives. She thoroughly enjoys the challenges that are thrown up, and emphasised the important qualities of leadership which help her to navigate through the intensities of life in Downing Street and beyond, including compassion, honesty, intentional listening and courage.

Alice strongly believes that Highfields students should be very confident that they could work in the centre of government. She says that people from schools like ours are much needed, so that decision making is shared and influenced by many different backgrounds, not just a few.

A Bioanalytical Visit

We were very privileged to be visited by Professor David Holt who came up to see us from London for the day.  David is an Emeritus Professor of Bioanalytics in St George’s, University of London. 

Highfields students from year 11, 12 and 13 listened to him explaining some of the science behind his work.  He has worked in laboratory medicine for over 50 years, and a whole host of clients ask his labs to identify substances.  The police might be asking for help in forensic work, pharmaceutical companies

might need help in monitoring treatment trials or pathologists might want to understand substances and chemicals in their cases.  He showed how drugs sold at festivals are very often not what they claim to be, and how his labs have played a role in showing how medicines in many parts of the developing world are made to inconsistent standards. 

However, what became clear was that Professor Holt has been a businessman as much as a scientist.  He took financial risks in setting up the testing company, and had to work hard to gain customers and develop his business.  Recently, sixth form business students have been looking at the difference between innovation, where you create something new, and enterprise, which involves deciding which innovations you think will make money and which will not.  Professor Holt was a great example of someone who had done both. 

Students asked many questions which helped us understand better how the testing process works and what it is like to use science in practice.  Several students said it had made them re-evaluate what they might want to do in the future and had looked up more about Professor Holt’s business and work.  The fact that he came all the way from London, just to talk with us, was very much appreciated.

Highfields students from year 11, 12 and 13 listened to him explaining some of the science behind his work.  He has worked in laboratory medicine for over 50 years, and a whole host of clients ask his labs to identify substances.  The police might be asking for help in forensic work, pharmaceutical companies might need help in monitoring treatment trials or pathologists might want to understand substances and chemicals in their cases.  He showed how drugs sold at festivals are very often not what they claim to be, and how his labs have played a role in showing how medicines in many parts of the developing world are made to inconsistent standards. 

However, what became clear was that Professor Holt has been a businessman as much as a scientist.  He took financial risks in setting up the testing company, and had to work hard to gain customers and develop his business.  Recently, sixth form business students have been looking at the difference between innovation, where you create something new, and enterprise, which involves deciding which innovations you think will make money and which will not.  Professor Holt was a great example of someone who had done both. 

Students asked many questions which helped us understand better how the testing process works and what it is like to use science in practice.  Several students said it had made them re-evaluate what they might want to do in the future and had looked up more about Professor Holt’s business and work.  The fact that he came all the way from London, just to talk with us, was very much appreciated.

Channel Talent Webinar: ‘Democracy in Crisis’

At the time of the elections in the UK and India, and with the US elections coming up, some Highfields students were involved in this webinar with Channel Talent.  Lecturers from the University of East Anglia looked at the democratic deficit and at the direction of power structures at a global level, including some interesting maps.  Notes on the webinar are available here:  Democracy in Crisis.