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The Enlightenment Masterclass
Mrs Lloyd sent this report:
The Enlightenment Masterclass
The Enlightenment Masterclass organised in partnership with St Hugh’s College Oxford originally planned for the end of March, was re scheduled to Thursday, 26 November. The event was to be an immersive multi-disciplinary learning experience where a number of subjects come together around a common theme. The important period of the Enlightenment from 1715 until 1789, a very important period of change and new ideas in the Arts, literature, Science, politics and Philosophy was the over aching theme for the Masterclass.
The event began in the afternoon with a short virtual lecture from Oxford on the fashion and style at the time of the Enlightenment and ‘The Age of Reason’. This was watched by the Sixth Form Fashion and Textiles students who then began a two hour workshop where they prepared under caging and modelled their own interpretations of the costumes of the period. A small team from Oxford were watching remotely and were amazed by the creativity and accomplishments of the students and described the finished outcomes as ‘show stopping.’ Social distancing and Covid secure rules were followed throughout. This practical session was followed by two evening Virtual lectures. Starting at 6.30pm Dr David Taylor delivered an extremely interesting lecture on the written word and literature of the period and ended with the work of Johnathan Swift. The lecture that followed was delivered by Professor Adrian Moore and focused on the Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Students were asked to listen to a Podcast of one of the programmes on the ‘Infinite’ that Professor Moore created for BBC Radio 4 prior to the lecture. Professor Moore was so taken with the questions that he gave the students the option to stay later and the event finally finished at 9.30pm. The academic staff were very impressed with the quality of the questioning from our students and the College have asked if we can consider doing this type of event again. All the students involved thoroughly enjoyed the creative and mental stimulus that this event generated.