The team at Cheltenham Bournside School launched a new Inspire Lecture Series at the end of September, with a programme of 10 inspirational lectures already planned for this academic year.

The first guest in the series, Nathan Lake, a professional squash player currently representing England on the PSA World Tour, delivered his lecture online from his current base in Chicago, Illinois.

A former East Glos Club member and winner of the European Junior Championships when he was just 18, Nathan is proud Cheltenham Bournside School and University of Gloucestershire alumni and is ranked number 35 in the world.

Mr Taylor from Bournside School said: "The Inspire Lecture Series builds upon our already successful external speaker programme at Cheltenham Bournside School, bringing it together under one umbrella to help our students identify the speakers they'd most like to see.

"Each speaker brings their own expertise and experience into the school, sparking curiosity and inspiring ambition among our students. Thank you to Nathan for kicking the programme off from nearly 4,000 miles away and thank you to everyone who is supporting this year's fantastic series."

Many of the upcoming talks will be delivered in partnership with experts from University of Gloucestershire.

Alice Vellender, student recruitment and outreach manager at University of Gloucestershire, said: "We're delighted to be working closely with the team at Bournside to deliver a varied and vibrant series of subject lectures.

"Academic colleagues from a range of areas have volunteered their time to share their passion for their subject specialism and they are excited to kickstart some interesting conversations with students.

"We pride ourselves on working with local young people to explore their futures. Who knows, maybe this could be the start of a new interest?"