Year 8 Expand Their Horizons at the Meeting of the Minds Community of Inquiry

On Tuesday, 11th August, a small group of Year 8 students headed to Newington College for Meeting of the Minds, an interactive day focused on philosophy, critical thinking, and collaborative debate alongside peers from neighbouring schools.

Working in a Community of Inquiry framework, students tackled big, real-world questions across four engaging sessions:

• Exploring ‘Nowism’: Students discussed present-versus-future priorities, debating questions like whether society owes a duty of care to future generations.
• Moral Responsibility: After analysing a news stimulus on youth justice, pairs categorized scenarios into Blame or Not Blame to establish criteria for moral accountability.
• Navigating Dilemmas: Students identified how core principles clash (such as honesty vs. loyalty) and created their own custom moral dilemma scenarios.
• Ranking Values: In joined sessions, groups constructed and shared dilemmas for peers to decipher, concluding with a workshop to rank which values should take priority when ethics conflict.

Congratulations to our Year 8 students for representing the school with intellectual rigor and exceptional listening skills.

Mrs Lisa Ganderton, Leader of Inquiry and Enterprise