By Mr Hegarty, Head of Psychology

On Thursday 7th December 2023, (aka Brain Day), the school was delighted to welcome Dr. Guy Sutton, who gave a series of fascinating and inspiring talks about the brain to A level Biology and Psychology students. These sessions included actual brain dissections, allowing students to see (and handle) many of the brain structures that they learn about at A level. 

Dr. Sutton has held academic appointments at several universities, including Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan and Cambridge. Until summer 2022, he was Honorary (Consultant) Assistant Professor in the Division of Psychiatry at University of Nottingham. Guy has lectured in neuroscience and genetics to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate students, including medics, biologists and psychologists and continues to run advanced neuroanatomy days at universities around the UK. 

The day kicked off with a morning session that was attended by the Year 13 Biologists and covered a range of topics from the basic anatomy of the brain and the structure and function of nerve cells through to questions of consciousness and what activity there is in the brain even after death. 

Following the brain dissection another talk about a range of developments including cerebral organoids and brain computer interfaces took the students well beyond the A level syllabus and into exciting new developments in brain research. 

The afternoon session was attended by the Year 12 and 13 Psychology students and began with an introduction to the brain and how it develops in utero (and what can go wrong). We also learned about the effects of drugs on the nervous system. After lunch Dr. Sutton  treated the students to another brain dissection and followed this with a session on Mental Disorders, Drugs and Crime.

The feedback on the day was incredibly positive, hopefully allowing students to think well beyond the A level curriculum and gain a glimpse of what university level learning might involve.