Seminars enhance learning
Academic scholars got the chance to explore the life of a famous French artist as part of a special seminar.
During their first seminar of the term Madame Vallée gave a talk on Claude Monet, a founder of French Impressionist painting who is still widely regarded as the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy.
Madame Vallée spoke in the artist’s native language about his life, education and his rise to prominence, with pupils given translation sheets in order to fully understand the context of the talk.
Once the talk had concluded, they heard more about the notorious painter in English to round off the seminar.
Over the coming months the Academic Scholar sessions will be held on a weekly basis thanks to the extremely positive response it received from pupils following the launch.
Madame Vallée, said: “It was a great little session! The pupils were so lovely and attentive, I hope it'll inspire them to find out more about Monet.
“I strongly recommend the Academic Scholar seminars.”
Academic scholars also explored the origin of philosophy as part of their second seminar.
The session was taken by the Reverend Sissons, and explored Plato's famous story of the Cave, which stands as one of the earliest philosophical explanations of the nature of reality.
They thought about how reliable our senses are and whether we can gain true knowledge by using them, before contrasting those who, like Plato, think knowledge can only be grasped by the mind and those, like Aristotle, who believe you have to go out and observe the world and conduct experiments.
One of the challenges for the pupils was to be ready to question received wisdom and to think things through for themselves.
The session concluded by examining the meaning behind one of Plato’s famous quotes: “The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of our senses, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge.”
Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition.