Generating Genius at Latymer

We were thrilled to welcome pupils from Generating Genius to Latymer on Saturday. The children were here for two of our outreach programmes: Bright Sparks for Year 5 and Junior Genius Debating for Year 10. 

We’re proud to be in partnership with Generating Genius – an inspiring educational charity which supports bright young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping prepare them for entry to the UK’s top universities.

Latymer’s role is twofold: we run an annual six week Bright Sparks programme with 40 Year 5 pupils from local primary schools, who are academically able and may benefit from a bursary to an educationally selective school. We also run a day’s workshop for 20 of Generating Genius’ Year 10 cohort – Junior Genius Debating – to help them develop the important soft skills of communication. Latymer teachers lead both programmes with Latymer’s pupil volunteers.

Saturday saw Junior Genius pupils, many of whom had never debated before, learn the skills of analysing, listening and rebutting arguments with remarkable speed.  Within one day the pupils had become excellent debaters, impressing witnesses with their persuasive presentations.  Motions debated on Saturday included:

• This House would allow performance enhancing drugs in sport
• This House would introduce 100% inheritance tax on residential property
• This House, as a Head teacher, would delay the start of the school day
• This House would mandate that the boards of publicly listed companies should be at least 50% female.

Across the Piazza, Bright Sparks pupils enjoyed their final morning on the programme, which included sessions with Latymer’s teachers and pupil volunteers on English, Science and Maths. Some great experiments in rocket making took place in the North Playground, before a graduation ceremony for the pupils and their parents in the Main Hall. The pupils were congratulated on their hard work, each receiving a certificate and a Bright Sparks mug.

Author: sdd@latymer