School_Matters_Issue_35

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IPS ALUMNUS APPOINTED EDUCATION SECRETARY

Alex Hooper, LVI

Ryan Jones (OI, 2017)

The appointment of the Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP to the position of Secretary of State for Education on 15 September 2021 brought Ibstock Place School into the media spotlight as one of his former schools. Indeed, another former pupil of the school, Dr Daisy Dunn [who we were delighted to welcome back as Prize Giving Speaker in 2018 – Ed.] wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph which featured this pedigree in the new minister’s educational background. In it, she described the development of IPS and explained that the young Nadhim had come to Britain in 1976, aged nine, after his family fled Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He was schooled at IPS until the age of 16.

ENGINEERING TRIUMPHS FOR IPS PUPILS PAST AND PRESENT Former Head Boy Ryan Jones (OI, 2017), who graduated from the University of Oxford this year with a 1st in Engineering Sciences, has now been recruited by Deloitte. This is a tremendous achievement and we wish him all the best for every future professional success. Building on Ryan’s terrific news, we learned within the same week that Alexander Hooper, LVI had won a two-year Arkwright Engineering Scholarship. Alex had to sit a series of interviews and submit a detailed application to secure this prestigious award, which is widely respected by academia and industry. It comprises a £600 cash prize, access for Alex to enrichment events and opportunities through the Smallpeice [sic] Trust and his sponsor, the RAF Air Cadets, and he will also be able to apply for the Arkwright Undergraduate Engineering Scholarship. IPS is also delighted to be a beneficiary of the award to the tune of £400 and will donate its prize money to the School’s nominated charity. IPS is an ‘Arkwright School’ and, as part of IPS’s service to the community, Mr Kerr, Head of Physics, was involved in a full day of interviews for its charitable programme.

The Secretary of State for Education is responsible for the work of the Department for Education including, amongst other things, early years, teacher recruitment and retention, the school curriculum and school improvement. We wish Nadhim Zahawi every success in his new post.

© Creative Commons

SCHOOL CERTIFICATE IN PHILOSOPHY For the second year now, a cohort of self-selecting pupils embarked on a philosophy project in order to attain the School Certificate in Philosophy offered by the New College of the Humanities; the university founded by eminent contemporary philosopher A C Grayling. After some preliminary sessions covering the salient ideas of the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle and Descartes, pupils chose a philosophical title and then undertook independent research. Topics which were favoured this year included personhood (‘Am I the same person I was when I was born?’ ‘What makes you, you?’); aesthetics (‘What is beauty?’); ontology (‘Are soulmates real?’ ‘What is love?’), different types of cognitive bias (‘Why do we believe what we want to believe?’); Just War theory (‘Is war justifiable?’); and the nature of belief (‘What makes our beliefs real?’). Perhaps the most intriguing title was from Emma Cortinovis, S10: ‘If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ This explored philosophical ideas surrounding perception and also the extent to which we are affected by events from which we feel far removed. Impressively, Emma also produced a 20-minute mini-documentary to accompany her essay.

From left to right: Natasha Hymans, S10, Pippa Maby, S10, Emma Cortinovis, S10, Laura Ortiz Sobrevia, S10, Yeva Kebabdjian, S10, Katrina Shone, S8, Raya Grayde, S9, Jasmine Dent, S8, Igor Elmanov, S9.

All of the pupils are to be congratulated on their independent learning, not least because they started the sessions remotely, and for their intellectual creativity and curiosity. The experience of undertaking self-starting work should serve them well as they go on to use similar skills for endeavours such as HPQ, EPQ, dissertations, and, indeed, in their intellectual lives beyond school. Mr Nic Walker, Gibbins Tutor