It was a pleasure to watch as these gentlemen discussed their experiences with members of Year Six, with gentleness and humour together with real emotion and honesty.  Later, staff and pupils, together with our guests, laid flowers at the Astana War Memorial, and were all honoured by a traditional Kazakh blessing which members of the crowd joined us in.

Nationalities, cultures and traditions blurred together in the midst of the memory of events which both shaped and changed the world; the inspiration, courage and humility shown by our visitors is an example to us all, wherever we come from.

I enjoyed the trip enormously, and I am sure that the pupils did too. However, having had a week or so to reflect, I have come to realise that ‘the South’ is in many ways a land of intriguing contrasts. For instance, it is immediately clear that a huge proportion of the population of the South are enormously proud of the role that their region, their relatives and, in some cases, they themselves played in the fight for Civil Rights. Many see it as their mission to educate the new generation – of Americans and beyond – and make sure that no one forgets just what people had to go through to achieve equality. “Without knowing where we have come from, we can never be sure where we are going” said one poster in Birmingham, Alabama, and this seems to encapsulate the attitude of many. Some of the guides we met bordered on evangelical, and were incredibly engaging as a result. However, despite this it was also possible at times to detect a sense that not everyone shared this view. Barack Obama is still seen as an ‘outsider’ by many in the South, and our coach driver – who himself experienced segregation growing up as a black youth in the late 1950s/early 1960s – was very clear that there were still those for whom the move towards equality was not necessarily a positive development. This is not to suggest for one second that any of this was explicit, or indeed open. But if you looked closely enough, you could perhaps sense that not all was as it first appeared.

Another contrast that the Deep South offers is based upon its perception. The Southern States are often viewed in a condescending manner by their Northern neighbours; think of the Duelling Banjos scene in the film ‘Deliverance’ and you will get the idea. Certainly there are many differences between Alabama and, say, New York or Los Angeles. I didn’t see one Starbucks in Alabama, for instance! In addition, the state was overwhelmingly rural, and the overall pace of life just seemed a little slower and more relaxed. However, in many other respects, Alabama could have been anywhere in America. Birmingham, the largest city, is a sprawling metropolis of over 1 million people, and large interstate motorways cut across the state as they do everywhere else in the country, with their ubiquitous and instantly recognisable green signs.  Also, for a supposedly ‘backward’ region, the museums and exhibitions were among the best I have been to anywhere in the world. Informative, well-planned, and seamlessly mixing new technology with History, they were educational, interesting and, at times, incredibly moving. One of the highlights of the trip for me was watching a group of around 15 pupils watching in complete silence for over 10 minutes as one museum screen played footage of Martin Luther King’s funeral. It was beautiful in its simplicity, and so much more powerful for that fact.

The welcome we received was incredibly warm. Almost everywhere we went locals would ask where we had come from and (perhaps after marvelling at our accents) would swell with pride when we told them we had come to study their State’s history. I will certainly be looking to organise the trip again next year, and will look forward to seeing if my judgements were sound. I would love to hear from you if you have any experience of this part of the USA, or indeed if you would simply like to find out more about the trip.

In short, modern psychology is the study of human behaviour and how the mind works, and it believes that this must be examined using the same hypothesis testing techniques as any other major science.

In practice this means that you will find psychologists all over the world studying pretty much every aspect of human life and behaviour. From the crowd dynamics of riots (click here for an article that appeared in The Guardian) to the age old argument about whether women really are better at multi-tasking than men,  there’s pretty much nothing that psychologists can’t find a reason to study!

Studying psychology in the Sixth Form at Haileybury means you will engage with some of the breadth of this interest through A Level study or the IB. Both look at the way that various schools of psychological thought have tried to explain human behaviour and analyse the differences between them.

We examine key (and often ethically questionable!) studies in social psychology, including the electrifying conformity studies done to find an explanation for the holocaust.

There’s also a focus on the explanations psychologists give for common human problems like depression and schizophrenia, and all this runs alongside research method modules in which we learn how to conduct psychological studies and recognise ‘bad’ science.

As a qualification, the study of psychology at A Level is supported by the leading universities and, when at university, it can be studied as a discipline on its own or in conjunction with lots of other subjects. Some of these include philosophy, politics, economics, history, natural sciences - the list goes on!

If you’re keen to find out what’s happening in the world of psychology or want a bit more information about what we do, then have a look at the departmental blog  and feel free to post a comment or respond to one of the posts we put up.

 Our job was to propose the nature of History (a tough task given the diversity of philosophical views in the room), the aims of the course, and the assessment objectives (this had to be done backwards – once we knew what we wanted the exam papers to look like, we could decide what to assess!). The interesting part was responding to the objections about the current syllabus (many and diverse). There was a constant tension between idealism (passion at times) and pragmatism (though this was fortunately handled with good humour). The IB diploma course has high standards; in some countries it leads to university credit (and so has to be challenging), yet it is sat by people who are not native English or Spanish speakers, and some subjects, notably History, are not always taught by subject specialists.

After three days, a proposal document was written which will be published online and opinion polls taken. Academics will scrutinise it for quality and, over the next two years, the proposals will be refined into something we hope will be workable, yet challenging.

I was struck by the process; the IBO want to make something that is the best it can be, something not shaped by governmental concerns, but by its vision. The IBO wants its pupils to understand other cultures and the events that have shaped our work today. They want them to work independently, to research and make judgements. In many ways seeking to fulfil this vision was what was most enjoyable about the time in The Hague. What was hardest? Thinking about what pupils will be interested in in 2021! I wonder how many other schools have thought that far ahead and are, indeed, planning their syllabus for 10 years hence?

The ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures above – of the village of Paschendale, scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the entire war - show very clearly the scale of the devastation. But as time passes, trees grow, grass returns, the birds begin to sing once again, and everything begins to look very normal. Here at Hailyebury we attempt to avoid these pitfalls by introducing some of the personal stories of Old Haileyburians who lost their lives during the War, in order to give our pupils a closer connection with the places they are seeing.

No longer is the imposing Thiepval Memorial merely an impressive stone monument, but the place where we can find the names of 37 OHs whose bodies were never found, including Percival Ram, Head of School in 1915, who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme at the age of 19. Similarly, not only does the Menin Gate in Ypres contain the names of some 40 OHs, but the inscriptions that adorn its vast facades were composed by another Haileybury Old Boy, Rudyard Kipling. We are very lucky at Haileybury to have a fantastic archive which allows us to obtain these details (the school’s Roll of Honour).

There are certainly some sobering statistics, such as the 740 Old Boys who died during World War One, or the fact that, in the first 100 years of its existence, 9% of Haileybury’s pupils died in conflict. Yet the purpose of this research is about far more than simply trying to find sad stories, as plentiful as they might be. Instead, by learning about people such as Percival Ram, and by finding out what they were like - whether they were sporty, or whether they acted in the school play, or simply what their hobbies were - we can start to appreciate the real impact of the Great War on society. It is not just that countless millions never came home, but that each and every one of those was a real person, who – for all the differences of time - were very similar to you or me.

The First World War has now passed out of living memory, with the last British combat veteran, Harry Patch, having died in 2009 at the ripe age of 111. Ensuring that we remember the sacrifice of those who never returned has now passed to our generation, and this remains a central objective of our study of the period, as well as our Battlefields Trip. It is my sincere hope that, by personalising the trip in this way, our pupils will gain a huge amount from the experience. Do you feel this is justified and how do you bring history alive for your pupils?

Certainly in the past, debating competitions were won by the best actors, those who thought through their gestures in intricate detail and used odious, sycophantic phrases like ‘honourable judges’ and ‘esteemed opposition’. Equally now, the winners seem often to be rather intense children, speaking as if they were the bus in Speed: if they drop below a certain high speed then they will blow up.

I am very much in favour of debating based on substance and intelligent engagement with ideas, rather than over-formal speech-making; yet, there is a place for speaking in a pleasant, persuasive manner. Perhaps the best combination is a speaker who is both intellectually and personally engaging. As I said at the start, people want their leaders to be natural. Being natural does take a lot of practice…don’t you agree?

In particular, it quickly became apparent that there is a thriving History community on Twitter, with Historians both professional and amateur sharing thoughts, experiences, photos, tips and interesting facts. The BBC’s favourite Historian, Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) is a great example of this. Already pupils here at Haileybury have been experiencing the benefits. Back in November, the Sixth Form were treated to a truly superb lecture by Dr Suzannah Lipscomb (@sixteenthCgirl) on Henry VIII. Dr Lipscomb and I were friends at University, but it took Twitter to reconnect us 9 years after we last spoke; a sign of the times?!

The History department’s Twitter account (@Haileybury_Hist) has just turned six months old, and I am pleased to say I can count a good number of pupils among my followers! Thus far my ‘output’ has been mainly focused on (hopefully) fun facts – think ‘this day in History’ – as well as pointing people towards interesting articles, radio/TV programmes and events. But I would love to hear if there is more we can be doing, and whether people have any other ideas as to how to harness Twitter’s potential to an even greater extent. Feel free to tweet me at @Haileybury_Hist with any suggestions!

Dismayed because this is all too familiar stuff. British children reluctant to learn languages post-14, never mind post-16. Sixth Formers rather short-sightedly looking simply at getting into university and teachers restricted by League Table judgements.

However, I think at Haileybury we can allow ourselves a wry smile. The survey comments that young people’s “horizons are not broad enough”, yet here at Haileybury we actually run a Horizons course for all of our Year 9 pupils where we examine current affairs, cultural matters and the art of debating, to name but three components of a carousel programme. The lessons are fun, practical and contemporary; rather like Have I Got News for You, I can’t actually prepare my Current Affairs lesson until the night before.

Not one pupil or parent has asked “shouldn’t they be doing more Maths or English?” Throughout the School Haileyburians benefit from being at a large boarding school. We have pupils from all over the world eager to experience traditional British boarding school life yet their presence, ideals and views enrich the whole community. Haileybury is an IB World School, we actively promote international-mindedness beyond the classic “Food, Flags and Festivals” one sees in some schools. My time visiting United World Colleges around the globe shows me we still have much to learn about preparing pupils with a “global outlook.” For example, at a recent conference I heard how student demand for the latest gadgets is having an enormous detrimental impact on the world’s resources; mobile phones can be acquired for free on monthly contracts yet it is estimated they actually cost £5,000 in “resources”. iPads actually cost close to £50,000 in resources – I rather embarrassingly noted all of this down on my own iPad. Therefore, we still have to consider better ways to educate our pupils about such environmental issues or awareness of emerging economies, but I couldn’t help but feel that where others may falter, Haileyburians will lead the way.

What is your school doing to expand pupils’ global horizons?

However, as Confucius said: “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” Not only does it prevent ignorance but reading has such a calming effect on the pupils that talking after lights out ceases to be an issue. More importantly, it provokes discussion, comment, a sharing of experiences – “what are you reading?”, “is it any good?”, “have you read this, Sir?”, “what book are you reading, Sir?” are questions that lead from the simple act of lying in bed with a good “book”. I say “book” because the romantic notion of seeing pupils with their battered copies of Lord of the Rings or such like no longer exists. Many of our pupils stare intently at their Kindles, iPads, iPods etc. Much of the discussion in dorms revolves around which is the best e-reader as well as what’s the best story.

Other initiatives to promote reading appearing to be bearing fruit too. A recent visit by children’s author Charlie Higson, along with House book clubs and a central Library Book Club, are encouraging a climate of where it is cool to read (particularly if it’s about zombies or vampires), have a broader vocabulary and a more creative mind. It will certainly make a pleasant change from asking a pupil if they have read “X” to be told “no Sir, but I’ve seen the film”. Instead, I hope to ask: “Have you read ‘X’, to be told: “Yes, Sir, but “Y” is better”.

How do you get your pupils to read more? And what are they reading at the moment?