Winchester College
Winchester College Lecture Series
Jane Austen investigates: What are books for?
Friday 2 May 2025
To coincide with the opening of 8 College Street (the house where Jane Austen died) we are delighted to welcome the author and
broadcaster Professor Fiona Stafford.
Fiona is professor of English at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. She has written a critical
biography, Jane Austen: A Brief Life, and edited Emma for Penguin and Pride and Prejudice for Oxford World's Classics. She also
appeared on Radio 4's In Our Time, discussing Persuasion. Other recent books include: Time and Tide: The Long, Long Life of
Landscape; Byron's Travels; The Brief Life of Flowers and The Long, Long Life of Trees. Recent work for radio includes The Volcanic
Verses; The Story of Puddings.
School
Parent Seminar 1 - Katharine Radice
Friday 23 May 2025
The next step: preparing for life beyond Winchester.
Katharine Radice integrates leading psychological, cognitive and educational research with practical day-to-day suggestions on how parents can offer support.
Winchester College
Wykeham Day
Saturday 14 June 2025
Showcasing sport, houses and the best of Winchester College
Winchester College
The history of the English landscape garden, 1700-2025
Wednesday 25 June 2025
In June, the Warden’s Garden is at its best. Join us for an hour in one of our showcase gardens, prior to a talk in New Hall by the distinguished landscape designer Kim Wilkie (OW). You can find details of Kim’s work here: https://www.kimwilkie.com/uk/
Warden’s Garden opens at 18:00; the talk begins at 19:00.
New Hall
Parent Seminar 2 - Prof Andrew Martin
Sunday 31 August 2025
Maintaining motivation in the middle years: differences in boys and girls.
Andrew Martin, BA (Hons), MEd (Hons), PhD, is Scientia Professor, Professor of Educational Psychology, and Chair of the Educational Psychology Research Group in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He a Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and a Registered Psychologist) recognised for his work on student motivation, engagement, learning, and achievement. His work is ranked in the top 1% of Educational Psychology on both Google Scholar and ResearchGate. He has written over 275 peer reviewed journal articles, over 100 peer-reviewed chapters, 3 books for parents and teachers (published in 5 languages), 2 Edited Handbooks, 1 Monograph for the British Psychological Society, 15 commissioned government reports, and over 140 publications for professional and lay audiences.
Drinks from 6pm, Talk 7pm in MUSA
Winchester College
Parent Seminar 3 - David Hawkins
Friday 12 December 2025
One of the world’s top college counsellors, David Hawkins MA (Oxford), PGCE specialises in supporting families and students to enter some of the world’s best-ranked universities and, most importantly, helping students to work out which institutions are the best match for them.
Winchester College
Baroque Around the Clock: Understanding Baroque Art
Wednesday 23 April 2025
We are delighted to welcome the Rt. Revd. Dr. Christopher Herbert to the College for what will be a fascinating talk on the Baroque.
Christopher Herbert was the Anglican Bishop of St Albans from 1996 to 2009. In retirement he is an honorary Bishop in the dioceses of Winchester, Salisbury and Guildford.
He has had a life-long interest in Art History and has been a guest lecturer at the National Gallery, the Courtauld Institute and King’s College London. He has also lectured in Berlin, Paris, Hamburg, The Hague, Japan and Italy. He has published extensively on art history and spirituality.
Once again, we are delighted to be working with the WCHS in arranging this talk.
School
An Evening with James Cleverly
Thursday 27 March 2025
An evening with James Cleverly, former Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. James Cleverly has been a prominent figure in British politics since his election as MP for Braintree in 2015. His political career has included the roles of Conservative Party Chairman, Secretary of State for Education, and Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary during Rishi Sunak's premiership, when he navigated international conflicts such as the Ukraine war and Gaza. Known for his pragmatic approach to policy, Mr. Cleverly has left a lasting imprint on the UK's political landscape, twice standing for leadership of the Conservative Party. His talk promises to be engaging and exciting, especially for those with an interest in politics and current affairs.
Winchester College
Kenneth Clark Prize
Thursday 13 March 2025
Every year, pupils in our sixth form compete for a place in the final of the Kenneth Clark Prize, one of the highlights of the academic calendar.
Six finalists are each given 10 minutes to articulate their thoughts on a work of art.
This year we are delighted to welcome as the adjudicator, Dr. Caroline Campbell, director of the National Gallery of Ireland and a distinguished Renaissance scholar.
New Hall
Royal Collecting
Friday 7 March 2025
Rufus Bird trained at Christie’s Furniture Department and is the former Surveyor of The Late Queen’s Works of Art.
In what promises to be a fascinating evening, Rufus will introduce us to centuries of Royal collecting, explaining how successive monarchs formed one of the world’s greatest collections of art.
Prior to the talk, please join us in Treasury to see works of art in the Winchester collection.
Once again, we are delighted to be working with the WCHS in arranging this talk.
School
An evening with Tom Bradby
Tuesday 4 March 2025
Tom Bradby is a British journalist and novelist who currently presents the ITV News at Ten. In addition to his work as a journalist, Tom has written ten novels.
In year of political, economic and social upheaval, we look forward to hearing Tom making sense of it all!
School
Studium II
Wednesday 26 February 2025
Join us for a fascinating afternoon of lectures. Sign up and we will send you the final list of lectures about ten days before the event. You then choose whom you would like to listen to.
Studium is one of the highlights of the academic year, an afternoon when Wykehamists are dismissed from their classes and get to listen to leading experts in their fields.
We have a wonderful line-up of speakers from the director of the Halo Trust, to Amelie Osborne-Smith who was severely injured by a crocodile attack during her year-off and responded by founding a primary school in a deprived area of Zimbabwe.
Various locations, 16:00-18:00
Wednesday 26th February, 2025
School
Early Venetian Painting
Thursday 13 February 2025
Art historian and author, Nigel McGilchrist, was a scholar at both Winchester and Oxford, and has lived in the Mediterranean area for over forty-five years, working initially for the Italian Ministry of Arts in the field of wall-painting conservation. He taught at Rome University, for the University of Massachusetts, and was later Dean of European Studies for a consortium of American universities. He lectures widely in
art and architectural history at museums and institutions in Europe and the USA.
His twenty-volume series of studies of the art, archaeology and architecture of the Aegean Islands, was included in the Economist’s 2010 list of Best Book series of the Year. His latest publication was a study of Pythagoras and Early Hellenic thought. It looks at how Pythagoras brought a number of very ancient, Eastern ideas into the thinking of Greece, and transformed the underpinnings of
Western science, music and philosophy as a result.
He now lives on the Greek island of Kythera.
School
Winchester College Cathedral Carol Service
Friday 13 December 2024
The cathedral carol service brings the whole school together to celebrate the end of term..
Winchester Cathedral
Studium for Parents
Saturday 7 December 2024
From the Winchester College Common Room comes Studium for Parents, when Winchester dons invite you to their classrooms. Become a student again: spend a morning sitting in a Div/ English/Art/ Biology/ Classics/ History/ Modern Languages/ Philosophy lesson.
In the past, parent and guest ‘pupils’ have enjoyed lessons on subjects as diverse as Herodotus, Impressionism, 20th-century poets, economic theory and Einstein.
Dons teach what they want – syllabuses are forgotten and there are no end-of-year exams…
You will be sent a list of lesson options closer to the date.
Winchester College
An Evening with the Rt. Honourable Andrew Mitchell, MP
Friday 6 December 2024
Andrew Mitchell was appointed as a Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) on 25 October 2022. He retained his seat in the 2024 election.
The Rt. Honourable Andrew Mitchell has had a long Parliamentary career in which he has held a variety of senior posts.
We are looking forward to hearing his reflections on the British aid programme, foreign policy, and the election results of July 2024.
School
Thomas Cromwell - post Wolf Hall
Wednesday 27 November 2024
The Reverend Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch is Honorary President of the Winchester Catholic History Society. We are delighted to host the WCHS for a lecture designed to coincide with the BBC’s long-anticipated Wolf Hall, The Mirror and The Light.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, DD, FBA, FRHistS, FSA, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and prize-winning author, has written extensively on the sixteenth century and beyond it. His History of Christianity: the first three thousand years (Penguin/Allen Lane) and the BBC TV series based on it first appeared in 2009; the book won the Cundill Prize, the world’s largest prize for history, in 2010. His three-part TV series for BBC2, How God made the English, aired in March 2012, and his BBC2 series, Sex and the Church, aired in early 2015. His Thomas Cromwell: a Life appeared in 2018. He was knighted in the UK New Year’s Honours List of 2012.
School
How geography and technology shape the advertising industry
Friday 15 November 2024
The founder of the world’s largest advertising and marketing company explains the impact of geography and technology on advertising.
Sir Martin Sorrell is Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands.
Sir Martin was Founder and CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million ‘shell’ company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalisation of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Prior to that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for nine years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack and Glendinning Associates before that.
New Hall
The Cameron Bespolka Wildlife Memorial Lecture
Wednesday 6 November 2024
"Disappearing Giants” by Holly Budge
We are honoured and delighted to welcome Holly Budge, a leading conservationist. She is the founder
of UK Charity ‘How Many Elephants’ and initiated World Female Ranger Week. Her work has been
celebrated worldwide, including by Sir David Attenborough and HRH Prince Edward. Holly is an
official UN Women UK Delegate.
We need elephants now more than ever. For us to tackle and mitigate the impacts of climate change
and biodiversity loss, we need healthy and thriving elephant populations. Holly explains how
elephants are a keystone species that play a critical role, not only in balancing natural ecosystems and
biodiversity, but in ensuring the future well-being of humanity. She has worked over a decade to raise
global awareness about African elephants. Please join us and hear how her critical work has involved
local communities as well as empowering female rangers.
New Hall
A morning of lectures
Wednesday 16 October 2024
Choose from a wonderful line-up of speakers including retired OW circuit judges, the co-curator of the recent Michelangelo exhibition at the British Museum, a forensic ballistic scientist, the former captain of Southampton FC, and the Head of the Centre for Army Leadership at Sandhurst.
Talks followed by Q&A sessions. Choose three talks out of a list of about 15 options. Sign up now, and the options will be provided later.
Winchester College
An evening with His Excellency, Mr. Vikram Doraiswami
Friday 11 October 2024
His Excellency, Mr. Vikram Doraiswami, Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, has served his country in a variety of high-profile roles: PPS to the Prime Minister of India; Ambassador to Bangladesh; Ambassador to Korea; and Political Counsellor to the UN in New York.
School
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
Friday 4 October 2024
A masterpiece explained.
Dr. Martin Postle is Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art, with a specialist interest in the eighteenth century. The current focus of his research is the compilation of a catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby. He also organises on behalf of the Paul Mellon Centre an annual seminar on the history of the British art trade, various workshops and public lecture courses, as well as teaching on the Centre’s Yale in London undergraduate course. Prior to his present appointment in October 2021, Martin was Deputy Director at the Centre. Between 1998 and 2007 he was Senior Curator and Head of British Art to 1900 at the Tate Gallery.
To coincide with the lecture, we will show a rare landscape watercolour by Wright of Derby from the College’s watercolour collection, dating from his trip to Italy from 1773 to 1775.
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