The Harris Group

On the 11^th of December we had our first online session of the year with our Harris Scholars Y11 cohort. As this group have already been on the programme for a year, the focus in Y11 is predominantly on thinking about university. Our session explored the topic of ‘what makes a top university student’. To do this, the event was split into two parts. The first part of the session has the scholars engaging in a critical thinking exercise to mirror the type of learning environment that would be expected of them in at an Oxford, Cambridge or Medical School interview. The scholars were given a case study which they had to dissect before sharing their individual thoughts with the wider group. For the second part of the session, we welcomed Steven Campbell-Harris from the Philosophy Foundation who got our students thinking about ‘what makes a great question’ and ‘what exactly is an argument’. This session was particularly valuable for our students, who were able to gain greater understanding around thinking independently and pushing a question beyond its original confines.