Daily Archives: 30/10/2018

School News

Debate Chamber Summer Schools 2019

The Debate Chamber Summer Schools offer students age 11-18 the opportunity to find out more about some fascinating subjects, prepare for university applications, meet like-minded peers and get to grips with some tough intellectual challenges.

The material will be challenging (for the older age-group, about the level of difficulty one might expect in the first year at university), but the atmosphere will be relaxed, with plenty of discussion, debate, and opportunities for students to shape the direction of classes. It is an environment conducive to getting to grips with new ideas.

Working in small groups (usually around 14 students per group) over several days offers participants a real chance to get to know tutors and fellow students and to explore the topics or questions that particularly interest them.

Highlights for students aged 15-18:

The Summer Law School in three distinct five-day Parts to allow time for more cases, more analysis and more debate on some of the most intriguing legal questions. Students can choose to focus on Criminal Law, Civil Law or International Law, or to attend all three Parts for a comprehensive introduction to legal study.

The International Relations Summer School will introduce the central theories involved in the academic study of IR – realism, liberalism, constructivism and Marxism – and will then look at a range of detailed case studies in order to apply, test and explore these theories. Topics covered will include military intervention, international law, development aid, feminism and foreign policy, regional sessions looking at China and the Middle East, and the European response to the migration crisis.

The Medicine Summer School offers a series of two-day events with specialist sessions on cardiology, paediatrics, oncology, emergency medicine and many other topics – enabling students to attend a wide-ranging introduction or select the sessions most relevant to their interests.

Our Mathematics and Physics Summer Schools now offer options for students at GCSE, and also for those who have completed the first year of A Level study. These five-day events offer a challenging and rigorous exploration of theory and application, with a focus on developing practical problem-solving skills.

We also have courses in Economics, History, Classical Civilisations, Philosophy and Politics (all for students aged 15-18).

Last but not least, we also have a smaller number of courses available for younger students (ages 11-14) in Law, Medicine, Creative Writing and Science subjects.

Practical Details:

All the Summer School events will be held at University of London venues in Bloomsbury, Central London, and will take place in July and August 2019. Please note that these courses are not residential, and accommodation must be arranged independently if required.

You can find full details of schedules, dates, costs, student reviews and tutors at http://www.debatechamber.com/summerschools/.

There is a limited amount of bursary funding available for students who would otherwise have financial difficulty in attending – please see our website for details.

To book a place please visit http://debatechamber.com/call us on 0845 519 4827, or email info@debatechamber.com. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

English

Rise like lions after slumber

There comes to some students a moment when they suddenly realise that tucked away within the poetry they are invited to read there is something so radical, so exciting, so different, that it seems to turn the whole world upside down.

Then, at that moment, they want to read more.

It might happen when a student suddenly comes across “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” and interprets Blake in her or his own way.

Or they might find an inspiration in Keats with “The sculptured dead on each side.”

And while one might not want to start a student revolution in school, there are lines from past centuries which can still stir many an active young mind.  Who knows what some might do with the thought:

‘Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number;

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you.

Ye are many, they are few.’

Scouring poetry in order to find individual lines that mean something to the student is, of course, not the same as properly studying the poetry but it can be a way into the subject.  In such a situation all that is needed is for the student to have access to the poetic works themselves.

But that raises the question, can we really afford to have copies of all the key works of the major poets available for any student who suddenly wants to know more?

And the answer is yes, when the cost of editions is very modest.

If you would like to see our list of poetry collections each at under £4, this page from our website gives the full details.

There will be no unexpected surprises, I can assure you – at least not until the students open one of the books and start developing their own unique interest in the greatest poetry in the English language.

Also available on the site is an order form showing all the books (poetry and otherwise) that we have available.

And, of course, besides the poetry we have reprints of the classics from as little as £1.88 each (with no delivery charge and no minimum order) covering authors from Conan Doyle to Oscar Wilde, Jules Verne to James Joyce.

For a selection of the 50 texts most regularly bought by schools, taken from our full range of 400 titles, please do click here.

I do hope you will have a moment to look at what is on offer and try some of our titles.