The 28th and 29th November were the first trips days of the academic year. SGS Sixth learners enjoyed a range of different trips on these days.
A Level English Language learners visited the offices of 'the Guardian' newspaper in London and took part in a workshop entitled 'Behind the Headlines' focusing on opinion writing. They also got a guided tour of the newsroom to see journalists at work. The learners also enjoyed some sightseeing around London, seeing Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace.
A Level Economics learners were invited to the Business School at UWE and took part in some Economic taster sessions. These included an introduction to the role of the Bloomberg Trading Suite and they also attended a lecture with current degree students on the Economic History of events leading up to the First World War. Lastly the learners also benefitted from a tour of the campus and the opportunity to ask student ambassadors about university life.
L3 Criminology, A Level Sociology and A Level Law learners visited Shepton Mallet Prison. Whilst there they had a tour of the prison site that included the execution room and the cells. They also learned about historical punishments and retribution and engaged in a lively debate on the pros and cons of capital punishment.
A Level Law learners also were able to visit Bristol Magistrates Court to sit in on some magistrates hearings. This was a valuable opportunity for Law learners to see the law in action and the learners received compliments from the clerk of the court of how engaged they were in the proceedings.
A Level Geography and Biology learners were able to glimpse behind the scenes of the recently closed Bristol Zoo and use their classrooms to undertake a study of the human impact on ecology on the Downs in Bristol. They used a variety of different methods to investigate the distribution of organisms and collect data on flora percentatage before analysing their results, putting classroom theory into practice.
A Level Psychology learners enjoyed a trip to UWE's Glenside Campus to visit the Glenside Psychiatric Hospital Museum. The hospital used to hold Psychiatric patients until 1994 and has multiple exhibits detailing historical treatments of mental illnesses like treplanning and the lobotomy.
Lastly, A Level Physics learners visited the Engineering Department at the University of Bath and had a tour of the labs of the Mechanical Engineering department. They also took part in a demonstration using a wind tunnel and discussed fluid dynamics, and took part in a demonstration of tensile testing, where they took the data back to the Sixth Form to analyse. They also to look around the University of Bath campus and saw the sports centre of the university.
More trips will be available on the next Trips Days being held on the 7th and 8th of March, with additional trips taking place in some subjects before then. We look forward to taking our learners on some more fantastic days out as part of their study programmes.
Applications to join SGS Sixth are now open. To apply, please select your subjects from the subject page and submit an application. The next open day is on the 27th January.
