Variety is the spice of life, and that was certainly the case with last half term’s PULSE lectures. Year 12 students were able to find out a wealth of information about subjects that they normally wouldn’t come into contact with at school, as well as helpful tips for a successful future.
Starting off the lectures in January was returning visitor, Mr Martin S Taylor. His greatest trick is being the hypnotist who doesn’t use hypnosis. Widely credited as the hypnotist who inspired Derren Brown, Mr Taylor gave a demonstration which explored the truth and science behind hypnosis, illustrating how the power of suggestion, peer pressure and obedience can influence an individual’s behaviour. The Year 12 pupils were captivated and there were plenty of volunteers when it came to audience participation. Mr Taylor had pupils with their hands stuck together, forgetting their name or convinced that the staff were actually zombies.
Next up was local lawyer, Mr Toby Greenwood, who spoke about how to get into the law industry. After graduating from Bristol University, Mr Greenwood worked in a firm in Henley practising lots of different areas of law including, criminal law, land law, family law and commercial law.
Headmaster’s PA, Mrs Nicky Emmett came to speak the following week about working in the pharmaceutical industry. Before Mrs Emmett had her son, she travelled the world working as a Marketing Manager, firstly at AstraZeneca and following that at the British Association of Dermatologists. Mrs Emmett talked to students about how the drugs industry works and the huge varieties of careers on offer.
Mr David Currie, Shiplake’s Director of Rowing, talked about how the skills you learn through sport, can help you later in life. Mr Currie encouraged the students to share the skills they could take forward into a work environment or even in their academics, including confidence, dedication, teamwork, courage, determination and goal setting. Sports people are very employable because of these skills, so Mr Currie encouraged students to treat their studying like a training programme.
The Rev Chris Briggs was up next talking about the key features of Christianity and why he became a Christian. He also read out what the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had to say on the key tenets of Christianity.
The final talk of the half term was by Dr Ashok Khare, Shiplake’s Head of Chemistry. Dr Khare is also the Chairman of Reading Hindu Centre, so his talk was all about Hinduism - one of the world’s oldest religions. His talk focused on Dharma, the foremost goal of being a human being in Hinduism which encompasses all of the morals, duties and virtues of what it means to be a good person in life.
Mr Kevin Dickey, Assistant Head of the PULSE programme said: “We have once again had a packed half term, with a huge range of interesting and informative speakers. This in turn has generated some interesting questions from our Year 12 students.
“Thank you to all of the speakers for giving up their time to prepare and come and talk to us, and for sharing their knowledge and expertise.”
