The Southmoor Scholars attended their first (very snowy!) trip to Durham University. We started the morning with a wintry campus tour around the university facilities and St Mary’s College. We warmed back up with an A-Z Durham quiz, and a goal-setting activity for the future. The afternoon consisted of two taster lectures: English Literature – ‘Ugly meanings, beautiful things: what happens when we read?’ and Theology and Religion – ‘The Good, the Bad and the Nazis’. We were supported by Durham Student Ambassadors for the duration of the day, including none other than Louis Jones – an ex-Southmoor Sixth Form student! He is now in his 3rd year studying Chemistry and Physics!

Back at Southmoor our scholars also has a lecture by Dr Adrian Millican, a Professor of Politics at Durham University. The students learned about ‘game theory’, and how this can be applied to political situations such as pollution or war. Students considered the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ as an example of this in practice, and applied this knowledge to a task in pairs; they could either ‘steal’ or ‘share’ their pile of chocolate, to differing end results.