Our extensive co-curricular and extra-curricular programme is not just centred around the Arts, Ely Scheme or Sport. We invest so much time and energy into providing bountiful enrichment opportunities in academic subjects too, including STEM.
Here, Year 12 students, Alina Savchuk and Allison Chiu, are pictured having delivered our first ‘Avicenna Club’ talk and presentation of the new academic year.
Avicenna Club is for aspiring Medics and Vets of all ages. The sessions are both student and teacher led, and follow a specific programme within which every pupil is encouraged to study the history of the British NHS, reflect on ethical issues to do with Medicine, and present on topics of interest in Medical and Veterinary Science.
Alina and Allison led informative and well-resourced presentations around the issues of drug trials. In Alina’s presentation, she focused on how drug trials run and some of the issues that can happen, using the ‘elephant man’ drug trial as an example. This led to the group discussing how rules change after incidents, and the ethical considerations of consent if the participant does not fully understand the trial.
Allison focused on the issues of drug trials in poor countries and the potential for exploitation of participants, as well as how it is hard to obtain true consent from the individuals.
On October 5th, 26 of our Senior Physics students also visited the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge Physics Department for an evening lecture.
The lecture, entitled ‘Rare Beauty – Seeking new Physics at the LHCb Experiment’, was given by Dr Harry Cliff of the High Energy Physics Group, which is based at the University.
Ned Kittoe, who is Head of Physics and Science at King’s Ely Senior, said: “The lecture detailed the current understanding of Physics at the very smallest sub atomic scale, and the efforts which are being made at CERN in Geneva to understand our Universe better at this scale.
“All of our students found the lecture initially very accessible but later challenging – just perfect for a spot of evening entertainment! We look forward to attending more lectures and meetings throughout the academic year.”