Academic Enrichment for Summer 2025
King Alfred's Academic Enrichment Newsletter provides a gateway for students (and staff, parents and carers!) who are keen to develop their own independent learning, following their own interests.
With the pressure of exams and coursework, we can sometimes forget that learning should be both stimulating and fun! And academic enrichment (essentially learning fuelled by your own interests) most certainly ought to be fun. "But what if I don't really have any interests?" I hear you ask. That is always the case at the very start, and the way to find those interests is to dip into different areas to see what grabs your imagination. You might dip into lots of different topics before you find something that makes you think: "Ok, I get that, but what if...?" And you're off. Go and find out more. Answer your own "what if " question. That is the start of critical thinking, a skill that is the most prizes by our top Universities and Employers.
A good place to start looking for those interests is this Newslettter. Make it a mission to find two or three items to follow up and explore.
TOP TIP for Academic Enrichment - get a notebook (or you can use OneNote if you prefer!) and, for every bit of learning, just jot down what it was (title of documentary, conversation, podcast, book), who it was by, and the date, then just three bullet points:
- Something new that you learnt or that surprised you
- A connection to something else that you already knew
- A question for further research (it doesn't matter whether you follow it up or not, just thinking of a question is a great exercise in critical thinking)