On the night of Halloween, St Dominic’s played host to Wade Allison, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford University. His lecture, entitled ‘The Next Industrial Revolution’ looked to make the case for nuclear energy as the only viable method of meeting the energy needs of an ever more populous world. Over 200 students and staff attended the lecture in the chapel, including the student who made the event possible, Ayush Deorukhkar. Ayush studies physics and maths at St. Dominic’s and like many young people is interested in the future of energy production, especially considering the implications it will have on climate change. Last academic year he contacted Professor Allison to explore this interest and it was this initial contact that resulted in Professor Allison coming into St. Dominic’s to deliver his lecture.
The fascinating lecture explored how energy production has changed over the course of societal evolution, detailing how humans have relied almost entirely on the sun for energy, either directly or indirectly. He argued that now was the time to change this solar energy dependence for another form, the energy produced from ‘gravitational collapse’.
Wade’s lecture was based on the material from his two books on the subject "Nuclear is for Life" published in 2015 and "Radiation and Reason" published in 2009. Wade was kind enough to gift the college two signed copies of these books which can now be found in the college library.
The College recently hosted an Anti-Bullying Conference in conjunction with the Diana Award. Nine local schools sent students to participate, including our two feeder schools in Harrow - Sacred Heart Language College and Salvatorian College.
In a lively and informative day, students discussed what bullying is (and why it is different from so-called ‘banter’), what causes bullying and what we should do when we see bullying taking place. Students learnt about the different roles people can take, and discussed the importance of being an ‘upstander’ rather than a ‘bystander’ when bullying occurs.
In a final session, participants planned how they would put into practice what they had learnt in order to implement an Anti-Bullying programme in their own school or College. All the participants were pleased to come away from the Conference as qualified Diana Award Anti Bullying Ambassadors.
Paul Higginson, Assistant Principal/Student Services/Safeguarding