By Harinee S, Year 12

On the 13th of March a group of us travelled to Harrow School to participate in the NHEHS and Harrow Symposium. We were each grouped with Harrow counterparts that enjoyed similar subjects to us so that we could use this opportunity to research a topic that we all have some interest in.

Selected by Ms Copin, this year’s theme is “O tell me the truth about love” so, in our groups we will be exploring our chosen subjects in relation to the concept of love. By the end of the Symposium we will have collaboratively produced an essay on our research and presented our findings at the Royal Society!

Going into Harrow School a lot of us were fairly intimidated, and it didn’t help that the grounds looked a lot like Hogwarts. However, when we sat down in our groups it was very relaxed and was far better than anticipated – other than some awkward icebreaker questions that we had to answer. When it came to breaking down our topic it was great to be surrounded by people that were just as passionate as you on their subject and a lot of us were lucky enough to meet our mentors who were incredible and great at answering all sorts of obscure questions. 

The research element was particularly amusing as we were introduced to Harrow’s three-storey library furnished with chessboards on every table – I myself had the pleasure of checkmating one of the students. After some concentrated research and a brief tour we then headed to dinner with the Harrow students and were met with a seating plan! I was dubious at first, but the orchestrated seating meant that we were talking to people that were passionate about subjects we didn’t know much about and it was really interesting to hear about peoples’ research on a variety of different topics.

Overall, it was an eventful evening and a great opportunity that I am glad I signed up for, as it’s a great way to develop all sorts of skills from teamwork and communication to public speaking.