Rutlish School Parent Portal - Rutlish Newsletter December 2022

To find out more about our enrichment programme please visit our website.

Attic Theatre Enrichment Club

Rutlish students ended the term on a high, with another amazing group ensemble piece, led by facilitators from the Attic Theatre Club.

All year, students have worked assiduously to develop their knowledge of different theatrical genres and acting styles. Season 2 workshops continue in January 2023! Such a great way to build self-confidence, oratory skills while exploring the world of scripted and devised theatre! Rutlish school extends their heartfelt thanks and sends Christmas wishes to the facilitators!

In November, we finally managed to get back to in person visits to Psychology conferences.

First up was Year 13. We attended the Psychology in Action at the Emmanuel Centre where we covered the following areas: Music, Identity and Relationships; Applied Behavioural Science; The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories; we even heard from Jonathan Smith, Performance Psychologist to the Paralympic GB athletes on Preparing athletes for the Games.

Our day ended with Peter Lovatt, Director of Dance Psychology at Movement in Practice on the topic of ‘Dance and the brain.’ What’s the link between dancing and the brain? How does dancing change the way we think and solve problems? Why is the way we move linked to our hormonal and genetic makeup? And how was this shown to the students…by getting them all dancing! Perfect way to end a brilliant conference.

Next up was Year 12. It was the Science in Psychology conference held at Friend’s House in Euston and the day started with Cara Flanagan and ‘What is the point (of science)?’ We then had Mike Cardwell explaining ‘Bad science. We also had the privilege of hearing from Tochs Onwuegbusi on ‘Crime – How can we solve it?’ and ended the pre-lunch session with Lucie Clements on ‘Dancing – Science and performance.’

After lunch, we heard about the link between Psychology and Magic from Oliver Meech, one of the youngest members to ever join the ‘Circle of Magic.’ We were taught a trick or two and then waited in anticipation for the final speaker of the day… Andrew Newton. The title of his talk was ‘Hypnosis … is it real?’

Here follows an account of one of our students who experienced it first hand:

My hypnosis experience

Recently, I was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to go to a science and psychology conference held by Cara Flanagan, the author of my A-level AQA psychology textbook. The trip highlighted a lot of the main aspects in psychology as well as more exciting aspects, such as magic, dance and hypnosis. During my time on this trip, I was one of the lucky pupils who was able to be hypnotised. My imagination was more susceptible to the work of Andrew Newton and I found myself doing very peculiar things that I would never have done in the right state of mind.

My experience with hypnosis was one that I will always remember. Andrew told us all to feel relaxed, to slowly close our eyes and focus on our breathing as well as his words. My mind focused hard on his words and my breathing to the point where my limbs felt at ease and, when he touched my shoulder and told me to sleep I almost fell down. I felt really relaxed and my body felt somewhat numb. There were even times where I would get this tingling feeling all throughout my hand, partially like pins and needles. My eyes would sometimes flicker, not fully opening, but it felt as though it was trying to wake me up fully from the hypnosis but not succeeding. I kept going from a state of hearing everything at once to a state where I could only pay attention to Andrew.

Throughout the whole hypnosis, I was conscious. I had remembered what he said somewhat, such as using my shoe as an oxygen mask, but when he woke us up, I felt as though I couldn't breathe without the use of the shoe and my body began to move as if there was turbulence on the aeroplane. It was like my imagination had taken over and I couldn’t not use the shoe as an oxygen mask - I was conscious but not consciously aware of where I truly was. Near the end, when he asked us to be a statue, I felt my body move into this awkward position even though I knew there were so many eyes on me, it felt as though I couldn’t really control it, like was in a trance where I needed to do it.

The full experience of it was fun and confusing as when I was brought into the waking state, my body was in a different position than what it was originally. I even ended up in a weird hug where I was in a headlock. Overall, I enjoyed my time, even though there are now multiple peers who try and hypnotise me. I hope other people get the opportunity to experience this psychology conference.

By: Rachel (Year 12)

It was definitely an experience none of us will soon forget and as potential future psychologists, the students have gained knowledge that textbooks just do not cover.