The Record - Gordonstoun

sixth form lecture programmeThe Sixth Form Lecture programme runs throughout theAutumn and Spring terms of the academic year. Overa two year period we try to expose our students to arange of people from all walks of life with inspirationalstories to inspire our students to seek out furtherchallenge beyond the school gates. We hope thelecture programme allows our students to talk about avariety of topics and ideas that they may not have comeacross in the mainstream curriculum. They also love tohear about how our OG’s found their time here andwhere their journeys have taken them.OG Heather Stanning started this year’s lectureprogramme with a whole-school lecture at the AutumnTerm Flag Service. Her message of being good toyourself and the people around you and taking everyopportunity offered to you proved to be an inspirationto staff and students alike.There followed an unlikely lecture on Wild Camels and,according to Jolly Gosnold, who later reported on thelecture for the School website, “Whilst at first glance,a lecture on Wild Camels might not perhaps soundmassively exciting or inspirational, Mr Hare managedto prove to us that, as a topic being told through hispersonal experience, it can be engaging and indeedintriguing. Throughout the lecture there was an ongoingsubtext, a message for us all to take away: Seeopportunities and take them, do not be afraid to trysomething new and see where it takes you. That iswhat John Hare did and, at an age when most wouldbe retiring, he is travelling the world and riding camelsthrough the desert”.There were lectures by Stephen Venables, the first Britonto summit Everest without the aid of supplementaryoxygen, one by Adam Karmer on extreme kayakingcalled “Below and Beyond Mount Kenya”, and one byformer Gordonstoun teacher, Mr David Monteith, whois a Mountain Instructor and who runs his own outdooreducation company, East of Eden. These lectures, andmany others in the Sixth Form Lecture programmewere all about seizing the opportunities that presentthemselves, making the most of them and finding outthat there really is more in you. As one student reportedafterwards “What could be interpreted as a rathercheesy ending - but wasn’t! - went along the lines ofhim saying that the way to live our lives is right underour noses: using the well-known Gordonstoun motto,Plus Est En Vous.”OG Mr John Barton, Chairman of Next and EasyJet,returned to School after a gap of 50 years to speakto the students about the importance of people skills;Sophie Elwes and Daniel Gouk came back for theSixth Form Careers Day and spoke to the Year 12 and13 students aboutwhat they had beendoing since theyleft school - twovery different pathsbut both ultimatelydiscoveringwhat they feelpassionately aboutand pursuing it intosatisfying careers;and, finally, formerPlewlands girlSophie Morgan, who was paralysed from the chestdown and confined to a wheelchair following a caraccident shortly after leaving School, spoke to thestudents about a recent documentary she had donefor the BBC - Licence to Kill - about young people anddriving. With many students either learning to drive orhaving just passed their tests, this was a lecture thatparticularly hit home as they were able to see and hearfirst-hand about the consequences of inexperienceddriving combined with the feeling of youthfulinvincibility.Sixth Form hosts Amy Gamman and Sophia Andrews with Daniel and SophieOther lectures in the series were about how to copewith moving on to life after school, HIV awareness,body image, how to achieve your personal goals and avery interesting and engaging discussion on the Britishpolitical system and Scottish Independence from ourlocal MP Angus Robertson. Add to this two lectures onScottish life and culture by Sixth Form Lecture firsttimersfrom the Gordonstoun staff - Mr Richard Cavayewho shared his love of Scottish comedy and comediansand Mr John Buchanan who told the students aboutfellow Dundonian William Topaz McGonagall, knownas the country’s worst poet - and the 2012-13 lectureseason fulfilled its aim of entertaining, thrilling, inspiringand informing.Photo: Next plc15