We were pleased to welcome Ben Collishaw back to Pate’s Maths Department last term. Ben is in his second year of reading Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge.  Ben spoke about graphs of functions and had students working on graphing challenges in Desmos (Desmos self-defines as a “beautiful, free online scientific calculator with advanced features for evaluating percentages, fractions, exponential functions, logarithms, trigonometry, statistics, and more.”)

Of the workshop, Year 12 Further Mathematician Yuvraj said,
“Ben’s talk was a lot of fun! His Desmos graphing challenge got us thinking about lots of functions and how transformations affected them, and how using bounds would shape what the lines looked like.”

Ruth Samuel joined Pate’s for the Sixth Form and is now in her second year at University of Exeter, studying Mathematics. Ruth visited last term to share her experience of reading Maths at University.

Further Mathematician Sinchana (Year 12) said,
“Ruth talked to us about Maths at university. She talked about the different teaching styles compared to A Levels, and how we’d be assessed. She went through some of the content that would be taught in a university course, such as proof by negation and statistics with a large data set. I found the talk very inspiring and informative.”

In December, EngSoc organised for Rajaram Gadepalli, currently in his second year of Aerospace Engineering at University of Bath, to visit and share his experience of the various aspects of being an Engineering student. His excellent talk covered a variety of topics including applications; aerospace engineering degrees and where engineering can take you in the future. Raj also about projects he is currently working on, including the University Rocket Team, and demonstrated a Mars Rover that the University Roving team built.

Hermione Flackett (2021) also visited us last term, sharing her experience of studying Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS) at Cambridge. At Pate’s, Hermione studied History, Politics and Psychology A Levels and graduated in summer 2024. She is now looking at opportunities within the civil service.

A Level Politics student Natalie (Year 13) said,
“The HSPS course combines a range of skills and knowledge from International Relations to Anthropology, and a really special part of the course that Hermione spoke about was the ability to specialise after the first year and mould the course to what suited you best. Her talk also gave us an insight into what student life at Cambridge was like in general and she made clear that although it was undoubtedly hard work, the academic aspects were balanced out by so many extra-curriculars and events to get involved with outside of studies. Hermione’s main advice for A Level Politics students was to keep reading! Whether that be listening to podcasts or keeping up with current affairs, anything to widen your knowledge about the world we live in.”