By Miss McHenry, Head of Psychology

NHEHS had the pleasure of hosting the annual GDST Psychology Cup on Friday 23 September as an opportunity for Psychology students throughout the GDST to showcase research projects they had conducted over the past few months. Six teams of Year 13 students competed from Norwich High School, Sutton High School, Royal High Bath, and Portsmouth High School in a hybrid event run at NHEHS.

Students were judged for their quality of research and analysis, presentation skills, and ability to field questions from the panel of judges. In a very close competition, Norwich High were judged the winners with NHEHS second.

Events like the Cup give students a unique opportunity to investigate areas of the subject that pique their interest and allow them to apply their knowledge of research methods to designing and running their own small-scale study. The diversity of topics was impressive and ranged from the impact of TikTok use on adolescent attention span to age-based differences related to climate anxiety. At NHEHS, we encourage students to stay academically curious throughout their A Levels, and it was brilliant to witness students speaking confidently and passionately about their research.

As many students who took part in the competition are planning on pursuing the subject at university level, this will undoubtedly act as a powerful example of Psychology in action that students can reflect upon as they navigate the next stage of their education.