2024 – 2025 Highlight: Psychology

The Year 12 students have been a great group to teach. They quickly got to grips with the demands of studying A-levels and have strived to achieve highly in all areas of the course. Their determination, enthusiasm, hard work and being 10% braver has been outstanding. We are really pleased with their end-of-year exam results and look forward to seeing them make more progress next year.

The Year 13 students have continued to work with enthusiasm. The start of the year saw them juggle the demands of UCAS applications, personal statements, mock exams and regular classwork and homework assignments. This was an exceptionally busy time, but their resilience was amazing. By the time the exams came around, they were ready…

As Psychology has such an important role to play in learning, I was delighted to be able to share some of this knowledge and research with colleagues, introducing them to the concept of the learning pit, developed by James Nottingham. This theory, supported by psychological research, shows how desirable difficulties and cognitive conflict in learning aid greater progress.

The Year 12 subject leaders, Rachel and Sophie, have been delivering Psychology Society to younger years, and this has been very popular. Topics ranged from mental health to phobias, giving younger students an insight into Psychology at Channing. Rachel and Sophie have also been involved in publishing this year’s issues of Neuro Narratives. All Year 12 students have written articles on psychology topics that they have a personal interest in, ranging from the psychology behind financial decision-making to the effects of the breakdown of families.

In September, Dr Guy Sutton delivered a Brains for Psychologists introduction to neuroscience event to Year 13 students. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to enrich their knowledge and learn about the most recent research into brain functioning. Dr Sutton also performed a brain dissection and showed students some truly fascinating research into brain-computer interfacing. He will be back next year to deliver this to Year 12s.

This year, it has also been great to introduce students in Year 9 to the area of animal behaviour and evolutionary psychology through the Extended Learners Project. Students were taught some of the key principles in the study of animal behaviour and then tasked with recording the behaviours of the water birds in Waterlow Park. Upon completion of the projects, the students will be eligible for an AQA Unit Award Scheme accreditation.

Channing was able to host the Girls’ Schools Association annual Psychology Cluster Meeting. This was a great opportunity for teachers from eight other girls’ schools to meet and discuss all aspects of psychology education. It was a great event, and it was wonderful to put Channing firmly on the Psychology map. We are already planning a Psychology lecture series for next year, with some extremely interesting psychologists signed up to take part, so next year is lining up to be an incredibly exciting one.