"I'm delighted I sent my sons to Habs. It offers much choice and has certainly inspired them to achieve their full potential."
	Dr Sussan Nourshargh, Professor of Pharmacology, Barts.

The General Studies Department

General Studies Cookery gallery

The aim of general studies is to widen the interest and broaden the educational experience of student beyond A Level. For four periods a week Boys choose from a wide variety of courses. Half of these are organised jointly with the Girls school. 

In the Lower sixth courses are organised into groups:

• thinking
• recreation
• life skills
• higher education
• cultural activities
• practical activities
• Each student must choose one course form each area.
• In the Upper sixth courses include personal finance, public speaking, sociology, media studies, astronomy, wine studies and philosophy. Some boys will attend Oxbridge lesson during General Studies time.

Sixth form General Studies exchange with the French Grammar School in Berlin:

A cross-curricular venture, initiated this Easter by Mr Corrall, was a week’s sixth form General Studies visit to Berlin. The visit was linked with staff and pupils at the College Francais, and the group of sixteen from England included some boys from Habs and Merchant Taylors’ School, and girls from North London Collegiate School. The visiting party stayed throughout the week with local families and had a most enjoyable time.

The French Grammar School was founded in 1689 by Friedrich Wilhelm 1 for refugee Huguenots fleeing the purges of Louis XIV and since its inception has uniquely taught in both French and German. It is in the centre of Berlin, a city which has witnessed so many remarkable and politically pivotal changes during the past century.

Visits to Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, the Wannsee villa, the Cacilienhof, Checkpoint Charlie and Normannenstrasse, recalling some of the darkest days in recent German history, were in contrast with the delights of the park of Sans Souci and the baroque elegance of Potsdam. Berlin of today – positive, forward-looking, optimistic and once more capital of a united Germany, yet constantly aware of the horrors of the past – could hardly be a more interesting or appropriate city through which to understand the breadth and depth of the political/historical/cultural development of central Europe.

After such a successful first exchange visit, it is very much to be hoped that our contact with the College Francais will be sustained.