On Tuesday, we were delighted to welcome the BGS community for a succession of Prize Giving events, hosted in the beautiful marquee setting within the school grounds.
The Prize Giving events celebrated the success of students within Years 7 up to Upper Sixth, who have gone above and beyond this year. The prizes ranged from Academic Excellence to Citizenship.
Throughout the day, the different year groups celebrated with their peers and enjoyed refreshments and cakes on the lawn, which created a lovely atmosphere for all in attendance. All students engaged in the festivities as they wrote their personal ‘Bold, Imaginative and Reflective’ reflections on tags displayed beautifully on a board near the entrance of the marquee.
During each ceremony the students were treated to wonderful musical and speech and drama performances from their cohort before listening to an address from BGS Headmistress Mrs Gibson, which reflected on the BGS values, in particular, the importance of always being ‘Reflective’.
A lively and full marquee saw the Years 11-Upper Sixth prize winners, parents, governors and BGS staff in attendance for the final ceremony, with our special guest speaker and Dame Alice Harpur School alumna, Claudia Hammond (1989) delivering an inspirational speech about her career in the world of Psychology, sharing her psychological and medical research about ‘resting’ and ‘kindness’. An award-winning broadcaster, author and psychology lecturer, Claudia is the presenter of several podcasts and radio shows including All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4 which covers psychology, neuroscience and mental health.
Claudia is also a visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex and has published several books, her latest The Keys to Kindness, which is a compelling read on the huge benefits of being kind for our mental health and wellbeing.
Claudia started off her inspirational speech about the wonderful tour she had from our Head Girl, Tash Miller, and spoke about our amazing theatre and innovative labs. But most importantly, what a 'kind' and 'warm' atmosphere there is at BGS and she explained throughout her speech the psychological importance of kindness on both the giver and receiver, encouraging us all to be kindness twitchers, becoming more cognisant of the kindness that surrounds us.
Claudia’s speech then moved on to the vital role that proper rest plays in our ability to manage workload and the neurological benefits of rest. She described her action on an overwhelming day, she said: “Last Monday was a really busy day where I had loads to do, and I was preparing for a BBC Radio program that we were recording that afternoon at an outdoor science fair. The next day, I was visiting Brighton to chair a big European Congress on Psychology, and then I had a million emails to answer. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount I had to do. So, what I did was not quickly try to complete the tasks and force myself to do this. I went out to my garden for 10 minutes and started deadheading my plants..."
However, there was a very important message why Claudia did this. She explained later in her speech: “If you are up against a deadline, what you need to do is take a break straight away because there is really good evidence that you pay more attention after you have had a break. There is good research from South Korea showing that a break could be one or two minutes long, just 'microbreaks' where you lean back in your chair and shut your eyes or stare out of the window for a bit. If you do this, research has shown that you can concentrate better even an hour later. So, the reason why I went out to my garden when I had so much to do last Monday was to have that 10-minute break in order to concentrate properly and get my tasks completed.”
The audience were enthralled by Claudia’s speech, we are very proud that she is part of the BGS community.
View a collection of photos on our Flickr gallery here.
Prize Giving programmes
Years 7-8, view here.
Years 9-10, view here.
Years 11-Upper Sixth, view here.
