Year 9 Sparks attend mini masters event

On Wednesday this week, twelve Year 9 pupils took part in a mini-masters event at Ormskirk School. This is designed such that pupils are stretched and challenged beyond the scope of the normal school curriculum with such sessions as 'Memory is the Residue of Thought', 'The Hunt for the God Particle' and 'Are Criminals born or made?'

Schools from around the north west took part with a teacher from each visiting school hosting a session. Mr Taylor's session from Priory was 'How far can you change a melody until it is unrecognisable?' 

The guest speaker to inspire our pupils from the beginning of the day was Michelle Turner, who is a former RAF sergeant. After being diagnosed with a heart condition which causes exhaustion, extreme dizziness and unannounced collapses, she had confined herself to her house, embarrassed by the inevitability of collapsing in public. She told us she was living in fear "My heart rate fires up too high, like over 200 beats a minute, and I just collapse - and I don't have a warning." She overcame that fear, found solace in sport, and credits Invictus with transforming her life where she became Vice Captain in 2018 and now works on the Invictus Games board with Prince Harry. 

A special mention from the day goes to Mahir D who cracked the treasure hunt in the fastest time of anyone on the day, in spite of the fact that it was in Spanish, which he has never done before!