On Tuesday Mrs Armstrong and Mr Pattie hosted an Athena Prize Giving for Years 10 and 12 who had completed their Bronze and Gold Athena Awards.

This year 46 Year 10s took part, 54 from Year 11, and 56 from Year 12.

Students worked independently to craft an impressive academic CV, attending regular academic clubs and societies, entering external essay competitions, completing Masterclass and Elective courses produced by Putney Teachers, attending online MOOCs/Future Learns, producing artefacts like play scripts or works of art, writing museum reviews or articles for in-house publications and conducting experiments.

Mr Pattie also hosted regular Seminars with the groups, this year focusing on: Political Philosophy – what is human nature and what should government look like? Quantum Physics and the meaning of everything. Ethics and the Lifeboat Problem. Linguistics and prescriptivism in language.

As part of the process students have to reflect on what they have learnt about themselves as a learner. One student reflected:

‘I have gained confidence, thinking skills, writing skills, and more importantly, I’ve enjoyed it. I had no idea what I wanted to study […] but I have come to terms with the fact that I don’t need to decide everything now […] Learning doesn’t have to be monotonous and grey, if you do it the right way it can be the most eye opening, colourful thing you can ever experience’.

Congratulations to the Y10 and Y12 who received their Bronze and Gold awards this week. Those Y10 students will be able to take the Silver Award in Year 11, and lots of Y12 have signed up to be Athena Ambassadors in Year 13 where they will run a bespoke programme of academic extension for our Key Stage 3 Scholars.