American School of London - 5th November 2025

This week saw excellent final sessions of the semester across our ASL groups. The students warmed up with a discussion about what they would like to do for a career and were able to articulate their thoughts beautifully. There were some highly individual choices and their enthusiasm for their futures was lovely to behold. 

On newsround, we discussed in the senior sessions the New York mayoral contest, bonfire night, the potential for airport style security across train stations in the UK, as with parts of North America and much of Europe and why bonfire night exists in the UK, as well as the recovery efforts post Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.

With the forthcoming budget in mind, we discussed whether teachers should receive a salary more in line with doctors. The students had some interesting takes on this and they substantiated their arguments with interesting personal experiences and statistics.

We also discussed whether it would be good for the government to offer lower energy pricing to those living in undesirable areas (i.e. next to a nuclear power stations), in order to attract more buyers. We then looked at the Lib Dem scheme of ‘bike bait’, most feeling it was a waste of police time.

For unseen work, in the final ten minutes, one of the middle school groups looked at Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ and discussed their thoughts on the work, interrogating the question “what is art?”

It was also great to review the term. Each student said that they feel much more confident about public speaking, and we have some who are considering a future as a lawyer or politician. It has been a real pleasure working with and getting to know the students – best of luck in their forthcoming studies.