St Edmund's

Last week’s instalment of the Lower 5th Stretch and Challenge Club’s annual presentations set a high bar. Today more pupils took to the floor to deliver talks of their own devising to a sharp-eyed audience of Year 7 and Year 8 scholars, armed with curiosity and no shortage of probing questions. The standard? Extremely high. The topics? Wonderfully unpredictable.

First to the stand, Henry took us on a tour of the human memory, with particular focus on the remarkable power of music. From nursery rhymes and football chants to film scores, music turns out to be one of the most potent triggers for memory and emotion that we possess. Henry explained that music activates neural networks across the brain, helps children learn — whether the alphabet or a foreign language — and can even help patients recover memories and reduce anxiety.

Next, Isabelle tackled one of the most challenging ethical questions in modern medicine: saviour siblings. These are children conceived through IVF to be a genetic match for an ill sibling, allowing stem cells to be harvested to help them. Is it ever right to bring a person into the world as a means to an end? And does selecting children by genetics take us one step closer to engineered, customised babies? This sensitive topic was handled with maturity and thoughtfulness well beyond Isabelle’s years.

In the third presentation, Freddie examined the extraordinary career of Tiger Woods. What made him so dominant? According to Freddie, it came down to relentless discipline, hours of daily practice, exceptional physical conditioning — revolutionary for golfers of his era — and a cool, calculated approach to risk on the course. Tiger, it turns out, was as much a strategist as an athlete.

Thomas then posed a question that clearly resonated with the audience: which is the greatest video game company in the world? Using mean review scores, monthly revenue, and active user figures, Thomas evaluated Nintendo, Supercell, Ubisoft, FromSoftware, Rockstar, and EA. The results were robust: Nintendo — with over a billion game copies sold and monthly revenues of $1 billion — came out on top, while FromSoftware propped up the table. Afterwards, members of the audience relished the opportunity to interrogate Thomas’s methodology.

Rounding things off, Josie transported us to the Golden Age of Piracy (1680–1720), debunking a few myths along the way. Real pirates, it turns out, didn’t sail purpose-built ships — they stole merchant vessels and used canoes for raids. The original Buccaneers operated from small Caribbean islands, sometimes hired by Jamaican authorities to attack Spanish ships. And while the life may sound romantic, the risk of execution was very real. A swashbuckling finale to a wonderful series of presentations.

Many congratulations once again to the entire Lower 5th Stretch and Challenge Club — Part 2 was a triumph. We cannot wait to see what next year’s cohort comes up with!

Ms Bensberg and Dr Masterson

18/05/26