On Wednesday 24th November, the auditorium played host to a Dragon’s Den-style competition for the High Flyer Programme.

Teams of students in Years 9 and 10 gave pitches to launch a vaccine programme for their assigned country to a formidable line-up of ‘Dragons’ from our Science Department.

In putting forward their recommendations, each team had to consider factors such as cost, storage, distribution and relative efficacy of different vaccines and take account of the specific context of their assigned country, including GDP, population profile, health sector and existing vaccination programmes. Countries represented were India, South Africa, Thailand, France, Costa Rica, South Korea and Turkey.

A remarkably high standard was achieved by all teams involved, who were painstakingly prepared by their Sixth Form Aspire Champions.

Prizes were awarded to each of the teams for all their hard work and commitment to the programme in which 36 Aspire Champions have led around 100 Year 9 and 10 students through the programme every Wednesday after school.

Feedback from the judges will inform the next stage of the programme. This requires students to complete a 2000 word final assignment which will be marked in university style, with students receiving a first, 2:1, 2:2.