The Year 7 Scholars had their first “twilight” session of the term led by School Archivist and Geography teacher Mr Andrew Beattie at the end of last week. Beginning in the classroom the students were taken back to the Mottingham of the 1860s and using maps of the time were able to compare the school and its surroundings with how things are today. Where has the “Smithy” in the village gone and how convenient not to have the challenge of crossing Grove Park Road? Many people may not have known that what is now Mottingham Station was Eltham station. The students were able to explore why and when it changed.
Having moved the timing of this session from late April to late May in order to secure better weather, it was inevitable that there would be wind, clouds and some rain, but given that the second part of the lesson was exploring climate related matters this was perhaps a silver lining. After exploring the mysteries of what is in a Stevenson Screen, the group went to the far reaches of the school site to look at where the River Quaggy flows in a hard engineered channel as part of flood control measures, and finally did some cloud identification, complete with Latin names and translations.
It was a fascinating session combining different disciplines and as with all aspects of the Scholarship Programme seeking to enthuse and encourage thinking outside the syllabus. The lesson forms part of the Scholars Programme which includes workshops and lectures overseen by our Head of Academic Scholarship, Mr Cavendish.
