Highgate events
Highgate offers a packed programme of events and activities, many of which are open to the public as well as our School community.
Sustainability conference
Students from Highgate School are organising the first ever Environmental Sustainability Conference for young people on Monday 16th September 2019
The inspiring all-day event is designed for young people. A host of speakers connected to sustainability will talk from their backgrounds in the world of science, politics, charity or activism.
The aims of the event are firstly to update young people about various key environmental challenges, but also to inspire them to take action in creative and collaborative ways. It aims to give people ideas for how they might be able to channel their passion for protecting the natural world into campaigns at school or even into their future career choices, and hopes to set up a network of environmentally-engaged young people and teachers across North London who might be able to work together on these challenges.
Event booking
Night at the Museum
‘Night at the Museum’ is a series of talks (one per term) by external speakers and Highgate teachers on a wide range of subjects. It replaces the successful ‘Mondays at the Mills’ programme that ran for four years from September 2016. Details of future lectures and follow up resources for previous events can be found below.
Talks are normally held in the School Museum/Tabernacle starting at 7pm, with refreshments, including wine, available from 6.30pm and afterwards.
Tickets for ‘N@M’ events can be booked on this page. If you have any questions, please contact the Development Office, by emailing development@highgateschool.org.uk
Future and Previous N@M and M@M lectures
- Tourists and Tombs, 8 June 2020 - Cancelled
Dr Roger Bowdler
Highgate Cemetery is of world renown as a destination for the picturesque tourist. There is a long tradition in Britain of churchyards and monuments being popular destinations for sight-seeing. Not only did they embody history: they provided a moral experience for the living by bringing them close to the dead. This far-from-gloomy talk will look at English tombs and their audience.
Roger is currently a heritage consultant with Montagu Evans, providing expert advice on historic environment matters, and he also teaches university students about British history and heritage. For many years he was Director of Listing for Historic England. He has a PhD from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge on ‘Monuments of Decay and Resurrection – Images of Mortality on 17th Century English Church Monuments’ and has written extensively on the topic of sepulchral art. He is a former Highgate parent.
- Room for Welsh Art?: Kyffin Williams and the National Museum of Wales’, 3rd February 2020
The 12th Annual Kyffin Williams lecture given by Oliver Fairclough, former Keeper of Art at Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales, Cardiff, introduced the collections at the NMW, including the invaluable contributions of the Davies sisters, went on to explore the question as to whether the institution is a museum of Welsh art, or a gallery of Western European art located in Wales and also described how Kyffin Williams, a generous benefactor of the museum, was outspoken in his belief that the NMW should present a canon of Welsh ‘greats’ at a time (the 1980s). Information about Sir Kyffin Williams, who was Art Master at Highgate from 1944-73, can be found here: https://www.kyffinwilliams.org.uk/ and this page outlines the development of the NMW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_Cardiff
- Climate Change, 18 November 2019
Professor Joanna Haigh from Imperial College London, where she was co-Director of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, spoke about the scientific evidence for climate change and discussed how physics is used to construct computer models to investigate past and future climate and what needs to be done for the world to avoid dangerous levels of warming. Her conclusions were:
- The fundamental physics of global climate (change) is very well understood.
- Regional effects are more difficult to establish over the globe but indications are clear in many areas.
- The world is currently 1°C warmer than pre-industrial and well on the way to 1.5°C ‘dangerous change’ threshold.
- Global decarbonisation of energy and industry is necessary to constrain global warming.
- International agreement is in the right direction but not fast enough. Many stake-holders (including in business) understand that swift action is necessary.
Professor Haigh recommended a few websites:
- Global Calculator ‘The Global Calculator is a model of the world’s energy, land and food systems to 2050. It allows you to explore the world’s options for tackling climate change and see how they all add up. With the Calculator, you can find out whether everyone can have a good lifestyle while also tackling climate change.’ http://tool.globalcalculator.org
- Carbon Brief ‘Carbon Brief is a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy. We specialise in clear, data-driven articles and graphics to help improve the understanding of climate change, both in terms of the science and the policy response. We publish a wide range of content, including science explainers, interviews, analysis and factchecks, as well as daily and weekly email summaries of newspaper and online coverage.’ https://www.carbonbrief.org/
- Global Carbon Atlas ‘The Global Carbon Atlas is a platform to explore and visualise the most up-to-date data on carbon fluxes resulting from human activities and natural processes. Human impacts on the carbon cycle are the most important cause of climate change.’ http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/
- Committee on Climate Change ‘The Committee on Climate Change (the CCC) is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Our purpose is to advise the UK Government and Devolved Administrations on emissions targets and report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for climate change.’ https://www.theccc.org.uk/
- 9 Things You Can Do About Climate Change from the Grantham Institute website https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/9-things-you-can-do-about-climate-change.php
- Fashion, Fury and Feminism - Women's Fight for Change, 1 July 2019
Tessa Boase
Obviously Tessa Boase’s book, Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather, should be the first port of call and you can find out more about Tessa herself from her website.
She also recommends the following sources:
- E.S. Turner – ‘All Heaven in a Rage’ on the treatment of animals during the Victorian Era (Michael Joseph 1964)
- George Dangerfield – ‘The Strange Death of Liberal England’ (Capricorn Books 1961)
- Brian Harrison – ‘Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women’s Suffrage in Britain’ (Croom Helm 1978)
- Sarah Abrevaya Stein – ‘Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews and a Lost World of Global Commerce’ (Yale 2008)
- Small Bodies in the Solar System, 20 May 2019
Dr Mohamed Ramy El-Maarry, Birkbeck, University of London
For more information about ‘small bodies’ in general you can visit this site, for example: https://lco.global/spacebook/solar-system/ and click on Asteroids, Comets and Dwarf Planets.
Specific information about the New Horizons mission to Pluto and Ultima Thule can be found here: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
- Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Master, 18 March 2019
Estelle Lovatt
Information about the current exhibitions of Leonardo’s drawings from the Royal Collection can be found here.
The most recent biography (well reviewed) is Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. Martin Kemp is possibly the most respected Leonardo expert so his book Leonardo should be considered too. Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl is also recommended; and if you want to see his pictures and drawings there is apparently no better book than Leonardo da Vinci: Complete Paintings and Drawings by Johannes Nathan.
- Coleridge's Intellectual Legacy in America, 25 February 2019
Dr Philip Aherne, Highgate School
This Phil’s book, on which his talk was based:
https://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9783319958576
He also recommends the following titles:
- David Vallins, Coleridge as Talker: Sage of Highgate, ‘Table Talk’ in The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Ed. Frederick Burwick)
- Lucy Watson, Coleridge at Highgate
- James Vigus and Jane Wright, Coleridge’s Afterlives
- Samantha Harvey, Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson and Nature
Information about a Coleridge event that took place in Highgate in June 2018 can be found here.
The Friends of Coleridge have a comprehensive website: http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/
- The 11th Annual Kyffin Williams Lecture—Milein Cosman (1921-2017): her life, art and friendship with Kyffin Williams, 4 February 2019
Dr Ines Schlenker, independent art historian
A summary of Milein’s life and work can be found here and for a much more comprehensive account Ines Schlenker’s book Milein Cosman: Capturing Time is recommended.
- A Throwback to my Studies of How Black Holes Form, 14 January 2019
Dr Serena Repetto, Highgate School
The following links are recommended for further reading –
An article on black hole X-ray binaries from the American Astronomical Society:
https://aasnova.org/2018/11/14/a-black-hole-x-ray-binary-rises/An article on supermassive black holes from the Royal Astronomical Society:
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/matter-falling-black-hole-30-percent-speed-lightAn article on the discovery of gravitational waves:
https://astrobites.org/2016/02/11/opening-our-ears-to-the-universe-ligo-observes-gravitational-waves/This site, on which graduate students write summaries of research papers for the public, is excellent: https://astrobites.org/
An article on how it will soon be possible to image the shadow of a black hole:
https://astrobites.org/2018/01/24/hunting-for-new-physics-in-a-black-holes-shadow/ - Aiming high: school expeditions and life beyond the classroom, 3 December 2018
Will Blackshaw, Highgate School
Will recommends the following classic inspirational reads:
Mountains of the Minds by Rob Macfarlane
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer
Touching the Void and The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson
Into the Silence by Wade Davis
Into Thin Air by Jon KrakauerHe also recommends keeping an eye on the Royal Geographical Society website, as they often have great guest speakers of an exploring/mountaineering nature.
And if anyone is looking to go on a course to get into it all, Plas y Brenin – the National Mountain Sports Centre in Capel Curig – is a good place to start!
- The Transformation of St Pancras Station, 12 November 2018
Nigel Lowey
The History Press has published a book to mark the 150th anniversary of the terminus: St Pancras International: 150 Facts for 150 Years. It reveals many little-known details about the long history of this iconic building and its local surroundings.
- There’s a Pheasant on the Roof: Kyffin at Highgate, 10 September 2018
David Smith, Highgate School
To learn more about Kyffin, his two volumes of autobiography are the best places to start: Across the Straits and A Wider Sky.
Biographies include:
Obsessed—The Biography of Kyffin Williams by David Meredith and John Smith
The Light and The Dark by Rian Evans, with photographs by Nicholas Sinclair - Faraday and Electromagnetism, 2 July 2018
David Smith, Highgate School
Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction by Frank James gives a succinct overview of many aspects of his life.
The Royal Institution website has some good links to various pages about Faraday: http://www.rigb.org/our-history/people/f/michael-faraday.
The film Prelude to Power: the story of Faraday and the Induction Ring can be viewed here: http://www.rigb.org/our-history/bragg-film-archive/ri-history/prelude-to-power.
- Votes for Women, 21 May 2018
Elizabeth Crawford
Elizabeth Crawford’s website is a mine of information on this topic.
- Help, the Gamer Has Left the Basement!, 19 March 2018
Manuel Oliveira
An example of the game-based learning that Manuel talked about can be found here.
- Forensic Science – DNA Evidence, 26 February 2018
Dr Georgina Meakin, University College London
Georgina works at the UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences: which is part of the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science.
- The 10th Annual Kyffin Williams Lecture: Conservation Challenges, 5 February 2018
Jenny Williamson, Easel Painting Conservator
Jenny is a Trustee of The Institute of Conservation. She works for both the National Library of Wales and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.