Be your very best at The Royal High School, Bath

Aspire - Be your very best at The Royal High School, BathAt The Royal High School, Bath, we encourage all students to be academically ambitious, curious and intellectually open-minded. Aspire is our whole school academic enrichment programme and it is designed to challenge and develop students through a series of activities. These take place during the school day, after 4pm and, occasionally, at weekends or during school holidays. Aspire is specifically designed to reach beyond the examination specifications in order to broaden horizons, foster thinking and, ultimately, to prepare students to be successful women in their lives beyond the Sixth Form.

In addition to the Aspire programme, we urge all students to support their learning through regular reading. Each term we publish extension reading lists on the school calendar and students can also access these on Firefly, our virtual learning platform. Engaging in regular reading is widely recognised to improve comprehension, analysis, expression and grammar; all essential skills for academic success across the curriculum.

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There are three strands to the Aspire programme at The Royal High School, Bath:

1. Aspire Lectures The Aspire Lectures are designed to complement the academic life at the Royal High School and are an exciting way to impart knowledge about a range of academically challenging topics from across the curriculum and beyond. The lecture programme runs throughout the year, with two sessions per half term from 4.15-4.45pm. These lectures are compulsory for our academic scholars, but all students from Years 7 to 13 are encouraged to attend. The lectures are open to parents as well, as we welcome the opportunity to share knowledge with the wider school community.

2. The Aspire Group The Aspire group is designed for those students who specifically enjoy reading beyond the curriculum, grappling with new ideas and being pushed out of their intellectual comfort zones. This approach to excellent all-round academic scholarship underpins successful applications to Oxbridge and other elite universities, and the Aspire group is designed to help those students who wish to follow this path in their education.

Students are invited to join the Aspire group based on their academic performance in school. The group meets fortnightly throughout the year and aims to prepare students for the demands of a challenging interview process. The course consists of a number of academically searching sessions based on philosophical issues, current affairs and critical thinking. The girls are asked to challenge their preconceptions, draw upon their knowledge of the world and tackle complex political, social and subject specific problems in order

to build the skills necessary for a top calibre student. The Aspire group creates space for students to ‘think around’ subjects in order to inspire and support further research and debate beyond the confines of the classroom.

Aspire is taught in three different groups: Years 9 & 10; Years 11 & 12 and Year 13. All three groups of students will be emailed a termly digest of interesting events in the locality, so that they can make the most of the rich cultural world of Bath and beyond.

3. Super-curricular activities run by each academic department We believe that every girl should be furnished with the ability to think creatively and independently. Each area of the curriculum offers a variety of extension activities to support the work in the classroom and enable these skills to be developed further. We also want our students to have the confidence to explore, debate and discuss a broad range of ideas and the reasons behind them. It is our expectation that each girl engages with at least one departmental super-curricular activity per term.

At the start of each term students select their super-curricular activities and we encourage them to choose widely from clubs available, so that they develop into well-rounded individuals. The timetable changes from term to term, but the range of activities offered by each department is summarised on the following pages.

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Art • Photography (Y7-13)• Printmaking (Y7-13)• Ceramics and 3D (Y7-13)• Drawing and Painting (Y7-13)

Business Studies and Economics • Coca-Cola Real Business Challenge

(Y9-10)• Loughborough University Pre-U

Challenge (Y12)• Bank of England Target 2.0 (Y12)• Enterprise Day (Y8)• £10 Challenge (Y12)

Classics • Arriere-Ban Roman Re-enactment• Mythology Club (Y7)• Greek Club, Spring and Summer

Terms (Y7-9)• Gratin Club (Y9)• Sixth Form Classics Symposium,

Weekly• Annual Classics Symposium (Y7-13)• Sixth Form Mentoring of Younger

Students • Visiting Speakers (Y9-13)• JACT (Joint Association for Classics

Teachers) Summer Schools in Greek and Latin (Y12)•

Drama • Workshops for Drama Scholars

(Y7-13)• Whole School Production (Y7-13)• KS3 Production• Script Writing Club (Y7-9)• Visiting Speakers and Practitioners

(Y10-13)• Theatre Trips (Y10-13)

• Speech and Drama Workshops

English • Theatre Trips (Y7-13)• Debating (Y9-13)• MUN (Y12-13)• Public Speaking Competitions (Y11)• Poetry and Creative Writing

Competitions (Y7-13)• Lit Lunches (Y12-13)• Author Visits (Y7-13)• Lectures on A Level Texts• Visits to BRSLI in Queen Square• (Y12-13)

Geography • Geo-Historian Club (Y7-9)• Eco Club (Y7-11)• Geography Society (Y12-13)• Trips to Geographically Interesting

Locations, eg. Morocco, Iceland and Italy (Y7-13)

• GDST Geography Essay Competition (Y9 +Y12)

• Royal Geographical Society Young Geographer of the Year Award (Y9 +Y12)

• The Geographical Association Post-16 Competition (Y12)

• The International Geography Olympiad (Y12-13) Events linked to World GIS Day in November (Y7-13)

• Global GIS Events in Collaboration with Other Schools - RHSB is a Centre of Excellence in GIS Mapping (Y7-13)

History • History Club (Y7-9)• Sixth Form Reading Group (Y8)• Living History Day at Llancaiach (Y9)

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• Kensington Palace, Exhibition (Y9)• Chalke Valley History Festival (Y12)• ‘Your Future in Europe’ Paris

Conference (Y12)• Visit to Parliament and the National

Portrait Gallery (Y12-13)

ICT and Computer Science • Vex Robotics Challenge Team

(Y10-13)• Programming Club (Y7-13)

Maths • The Fun Maths Roadshow (Y7-8)• Masterclasses at Bath University (Y8)• Maths Challenge Club (Y7-9)• Girls into Maths Conference, FMSP

and Oxford Maths Institute, Oxford University (Y9)

• Enrichment Activities, Further Maths Network, Bath University (Y9-10)

• Maths Feast Competition (Y10)• Maths Challenges (Y7-13)• Maths Inspiration Talks (Y9-13)• Maths Team Challenges (Y10-13)

Modern Foreign Languages • French and German Visiting Theatre

Productions (Y7-9)• MFL Lunch Club (Y7-9)• Sixth Form Language Clubs (Y7-9)• Routes into Languages Pop Video

Competition (Y7-11)• Cultural Enrichment Opportunities,

eg. Trips to Restaurants, Learning About Cuisine (Y7-11)

• Vocab Express Championships (Y10-11)

• Film Club (Y10-11)• MFL Speaking Competition (Y8-13)• Beginners Arabic Course (Y7-13)• Beginners Mandarin Club (Y7-13)

• Exchanges and Trips (Y7-13)• Foreign Language Leader Award

(Y12)• UK Linguistics Olympiad (Y12)• Junior School Teaching by Sixth Form

Pupils (Y12)

Music • Orchestra (Y7-13)• Wind Band (Y7-13)• Swing Band (Y7-13)• Vocalise (Y7-9)• V20 (Y9-13)• Cantilena (Y7-13)• Scholars’ Concerts (Y7-13)• Gig Nights (Y7-13)• Big Band Event (Y7-13)• Music Festival (Y7-13)

Physical Education • ‘Girls Go Gold’ Trip to Newcastle

(Y11)• Volunteering Opportunities with a

Local BANES Partnership.

Psychology • Outside Speakers• Psychology Society

R and P • Spirited Arts Competition (Y7)• Philosophy Club (Y7-11)• BRSLI/RIP Seminars (Y12-13)

Science • Trip to Slimbridge (Y7)• Residential Biology Trip to Folly Farm

(Y8)• KS3 Science Club• Salters’ Festival of Chemistry (Y7-8)

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• Explorer Dome (Y7 + Y12)• Astronomy Club (Y7-13)• Astronomy and Engineering Talks

(Y7-13)• ‘I’m an Engineer, Get Me Out of

Here’ Web Chat (Y9)• Trip to Science Live (Y10)• Biology Challenge (Y10)• Medsoc (Y10-13)• Isaac Physics (Y10-13)• HiSPARC Club (Y10-13)• Science Society (Y10-13)• British Physics Olympiad

Competitions (Y11-13)• Biology Field Trip (Y12-13)• Chemistry Olympiad (Y12-13)• CERN’s Beamline for Schools Project

(Y12-13)

Technology • Cookery Club (Y7)• DT Extension Sessions (Y7-13)• Burohappold CReATE (Y7-9)• Coursework Extension

Opportunities, CADCAM (Y10-11)

For more information on our Aspire programme, please email Head of Academic Extension, Elizabeth

Cunningham at e.cunningham@rhsb.gdst.net.