In this episode, we sit in on a Politics lesson with Year 12. Recorded in November 2022, the class had been following Liz Truss' premiership closely. They started writing and researching while she was still PM, focusing on her controversial budget, however, they had had to pivot their research into a post mortem after Liz Truss resigned, just 49 days after taking office. In this episode, you'll hear from students who've just been studying Politics A Level for 6 weeks.

In this week's episode, we bring you interviews with our external Scope Day speakers. Each Scope Day we arrange for experts to come in and talk to our students about looking after theirmental health and emotional well-being, as well as a range of difficult subjects such as sexual assault, drugs & alcohol and staying safe at music festivals. In this episode, you can hear from: Deana Puccio from the RAP Project, about awareness of sexual assault and issues relating to consent; Henry Hudson from the People Change Minds Project, about coming out as gay and how to be an ally and an inclusivity leader; and Zoe Shuttleworth from IT Happens, about issues relating to drugs & alcohol, including vaping and spiking. These impactful talks act as an extension of our robust PSHE and RSE programme, allowing for deep dive into difficult territory.

Public speaking is something we all have to do at some point in our lives, whether it’s a wedding speech or a colleague’s farewell, however, it often comes up as a commonly held phobia. At Surbiton High, each year, the Public Speaking Competition sees over 500 students across Years 7-9 compete to win the Public Speaking Cup. In the first round, students must write, research and perform their own work independently on a topic of their choosing. Once they are through to the second and third rounds, they must work collaboratively in their year groups until the final teams of three are selected that are comprised of one student per year group for each House team. In today’s episode we learn a little bit about what goes into preparing for the Public Speaking Competition and we give you recordings of the Austen House Team’s winning contribution.

Choosing your GCSE option subjects is one of the first moments in your academic journey where you get to shape your future identity. In this episode we spend time with Y9 as they learn about GCSE option subjects from Y10s who are six months into their GCSE courses. Students representing each option subject get to do a one-minute elevator pitch explaining why they chose the subject and what they love about it most. We also talk with Head of Year 9, Holly Christophers, about the extensive work that goes into supporting students in making the right decision for them.

In this episode we talk with Polly Rumbold (Head of Development, Alumnae Relations and Whole School Events Coordinator) about our alumnae association, The Green & Silver Club. The club is more than a network to connect together past students, instead it links past and present students and staff to create an intergenerational Surbiton High School community. In the second half of the episode, we hear from 90 year old alumna Beryl Ba (née Birchmore) who attended the school from 1943-1949 and went on to pursue a career as a Christian missionary in Senegal.

In this episode we take you inside our Main Hall where every day starts with an assembly. At Surbiton we deliver assemblies that are led by our core values of Community, Courage, Creativity, Respect and Inquisitiveness, which every year group attends once a week. Each week a different member of the Senior Leadership Team shares a ten minute reflection on something relevant either for the time of year or on the wider world.

Surbiton Copes Days – otherwise known as SCOPE Days – are days where the entire school is taken off timetable for half a day to focus on PSHE and RSE, as well as team-building in forms groups, and generally building and reinforcing positive relationships in the school community. Guest speakers are brought in from outside of school to talk about difficult topics like drugs, assault, homeless, social services and many more. The day happens twice a year and has a tremendous impact on student wellbeing and contextual knowledge of the wider world.

Some children are confident, others are shy; some extroverted, others introverted. But what do you do to make sure a quiet child is getting the most out of their educational environment? What do you do as a parent if you are an extrovert and your child isn’t? Or vice versa? In this episode, Louise McCabe Arnold and Tracey Chong (the Heads of Surbiton Girls’ Prep and Boys’ Prep, respectively) share their experience of working with children across the whole extrovert-introvert spectrum.

In this episode we give you a look at Christmas celebrations at Surbiton High School: the traditional, the social and the charitable. This episode includes an interview with Principal Rebecca Glover, interviews with Y7s about decorating their form rooms and Sixth Formers running the charity hot chocolate and karaoke event for students in the main hall. Go to 6.30 mins to hear Rebecca’s Christmas message.