On Friday 24th January, 23 girls from Years 10 to 12 were lucky enough to attend an Oxford Masterclass in Bloomsbury Baptist Church in the West End.

Accompanied by Mr Macdonald-Brown and Mr Fernandes, the girls enjoyed 4 fascinating philosophy lectures given by Oxford University polymaths on subjects ranging from Epistemology to the Science of Happiness and Plato’s Symposium. Most memorably perhaps, Professor Charles Foster described his experiment of living like a series of animals (badger, otter, red deer, fox and swift) in order to ‘live more intensely and relate more intimately to the world’! The last session – a debate on which was more important: a healthy body or healthy mind? – gave the students an opportunity to express their own ideas; needless to say, several of our girls seized the microphone. The organisers promised us a chance to hear and explore ideas beyond the curriculum – and that is what we got: intellectual delight!