We were delighted to recently receive this wonderful letter from Robert Fox, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, on the subject of our recent Symposium with Harrow School.

“The theme of love in all its aspects provided the focus for a remarkable symposium. The authority and sparkle with which students from Notting Hill & Ealing High School and Harrow School presented work from the length and breadth of the academic spectrum made for an exhilarating day. The talks, grouped around eleven subject areas, displayed not only a breathtaking command of the disciplines concerned but also a determination to share knowledge and enthusiasms across and beyond disciplinary boundaries. The day had been planned as “an interdisciplinary adventure”, and it fulfilled precisely that vision. Pure and applied science and medicine jostled with mathematics, law and philosophy, literary and linguistic studies, and the contemporary practicalities of politics and economics. The tone was outward-looking, and the quality of the excellent questions and strikingly composed replies that ended the day was the measure of a highly successful event.

Underlying the conception of the symposium was a belief in the importance of openness in an age in which academic disciplines, especially though not only in the sciences, can too easily become areas of expertise accessible only to specialists. The counterweight lies in communication, in the manner of the lively, informative talks we heard on 25 May. The skills required in bridging the divide between specialists and non-specialists do not come easily. They call for thoughtfulness on both sides and a keen eye for the impediments to understanding. They call, too, for the kind of cooperation and collaboration within and between groups that went into the weeks of preparation for the day. And we should never forget the contribution, during those weeks, of teachers and external advisors. Without them, none of this could have happened.

For an occasion devoted to the exchange of ideas, the gracious rooms of the Royal Society provided a setting as appropriate as it was comfortable. The society’s membership includes many of the world’s greatest scientists, as it has done since its foundation in 1660. As an elite body of some 1800 fellows and foreign members (more than eighty of them Nobel Laureates), it is unyielding in its priority of promoting scientific excellence. But it is equally mindful of a parallel mission aimed at encouraging public engagement with science. One of its most widely read journals, Notes and Records, of which I was editor some years ago, is typical of the mission in offering scholarly articles not on the achievements and debates of today but on science in human history in all periods and cultures. As part of a programme of lectures, exhibitions, and other activities open to scientists and non-scientists alike, the journal plays its part in a society proud to be a place of interaction with the world beyond its doors as well as a force for the advancement of specialized research at the highest level.

On a memorable day, many values were reaffirmed. Belief in the primacy of academic achievement went hand in hand with the importance of critical thinking and presentational skills, exemplified in two school communities, students and teachers, working together and at their very best. It was an occasion of which Notting Hill & Ealing High School and Harrow School have every reason to be proud.”