On Friday 17th April, Cheney students from Years 10 and 12 took part in a range of events as part of the Oxford Brookes' Think Human humanities festival.

 

In the morning, Cheney hosted sessions on Shakespeare, poetry and philosophy run by Oxford Brookes lecturers and an award-winning visiting poet, Eric Yip. We were joined by other local schools for these engaging, interactive activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon, a group of Year 12 students went to Brookes for sessions aimed at developing important life skills: one in which they used Virtual Reality technology to learn interviewing and presentation skills; in the other they learnt how to run a campaign to effect change in local, national or international communities.

 

 

 

We are very grateful to Oxford Brookes for involving our school in the festival and to the other schools who came along. Our students enjoyed all the events and really appreciate the new insights and skills they have discovered.

 

Anniyah said: "I thought the activism session was really empowering and helpful. It put campaigning into perspective for me and made it out as something accessible for everyone when it seems quite hard to approach initially."

 

Siri commented: "I immensely enjoyed the campaigning session. It was so wonderful to be in a room full of students from all across Oxford who really wanted to create change—you could feel the drive and energy and deep care about the issues in the room. It gave me a lot of hope!"

 

Mr Stapley

English Teacher, KS5 Co-Lead, Year 11 Tutor