Kilgraston – Humanities Day

27 Mar 2017

The day began with a keynote speech from Natalie Haynes, author of The Classical Guide to the Modern World and former Perrier-nominated stand-up comedian, on the importance of following your passion. After this, the girls broke up into groups for a series of workshops: first, Jo Haskins, project manager at Turner & Townsend, led a session on planning a refugee camp; then Professor Tim Whitmarsh of the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge gave a presentation on how the works of Homer might have been performed, including references to modern-day allusions; and finally, Anna Chrystal of the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham gave the girls some hands-on experience of studying fossils. Over lunch there was a higher education and careers fair in the school library then, to end the day, Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE spoke of his extraordinary feats of physical and mental endurance and his undiminishing desire for exploring.

I will leave the final word to Sir Ranulph – when asked what advice he had for the girls in the audience, he told the story of being left in charge of Elizabeth, his 11-year-old daughter, for the first time. His wife had given him a list of things that Elizabeth was and was not allowed to do. When Elizabeth did something on the banned list, Sir Ranulph told her: ‘You’re not allowed to do that.’
‘Daddy,’ she replied. ‘Shut up.’