Outreach Roadshow to Leicestershire: blog of the week’s activities

Day 1: Monday 19 November

I always look forward to this time of the year when it comes to outreach – there’s a feeling of anticipation in Oxford as tutors are currently in the process of shortlisting applications, with interviews set to take place in only a few weeks. This anticipation is mirrored in schools, perhaps with a hint of apprehension, as students in Year 13 are eagerly awaiting to hear if they have been invited to interview at Oxford or at Cambridge. It’s at this point in the year that I, along with many other Outreach and Access officers at the two universities, are out delivering interview workshops to these students, to dispel myths and give them an insight into the interview process so that they can be as well prepared as possible.

It’s especially rewarding when I am able to collaborate with colleagues on these events, and one of the best ways to do this is to work with our counterpart colleges at Cambridge. Amber Cuttill is the Head of Widening Participation at Pembroke College Cambridge, with whom we share the link region of Leicestershire, and we have worked together on a number of previous occasions. This time, we will deliver a series of talks to students in Year 13, and also to students in Year 12 – who are less than a year away from applying – as well as to aspirational students in Year 11 who are rapidly approaching their GCSEs and their first step towards applying to universities. To ensure we can engage with as many students and schools as possible, we have liaised with a handful of schools who have generously agreed to host nearby schools and colleges, acting as a hub for several events throughout the day. Today, De Lisle College in Loughborough hosted us and over 200 students from 11 local schools.

Our first session was an ‘Introduction to Oxbridge’, as well as universities in general, to over 100 Year 11 students from Castle Donington College, Iveshead School, Humphrey Purkins School, Rawlins Academy, Woodbrook Vale School, and of course students from De Lisle College. We talked about how A-level choices can have a big impact on course choice at university – something that is especially pertinent for these students, as many are making applications to sixth forms at this very time. After discussing what sets university apart from high school and sixth form, we were then able to move on to how Oxford and Cambridge differ from other universities, covering aspects such as the collegiate and tutorial systems. It was fantastic to see so many students interested in applying to top universities, and I hope the students were able to take away useful information about Oxbridge, and make more informed choices regarding A-levels.

Year 12 students from Melton Vale, Wreake Valley, Loughborough College and Rawlins Academy then joined De Lisle students for a more in-depth look at the Oxbridge application process. With less than 11 months until the 15 October deadline for these students, it was vital to get across the importance of course choice when preparing an application. As Oxford and Cambridge are keen not only to see an enthusiasm for a course when applying, but also evidence of preparation and academic ability, the sooner students are confident of their course choice, the sooner they can go about demonstrating these attributes. It was great to have such an engaged group for this talk – the students had plenty of pertinent, engaging questions that demonstrated not only a good understanding but a desire to succeed.

Our visit to De Lisle College finished with an Interview Workshop with a handful of students from Rawlins Academy, Ashby School and De Lisle College. Amber and I walked the students through the interview process, detailing the logistics of the process at both Oxford and Cambridge. We talked about what the universities are looking for in the interview process, as well as (perhaps more importantly!) what they are not looking for. Reassuring students that we are not assessing them on aspects such as their manners, how much eye contact they maintain, what they wear or whether they give a crushing handshake in the interview is a very important aspect of these workshops. Many people have preconceptions of interviews in general, and reminding students that Oxbridge interviews operate very differently from job interviews is a key distinction to make. The session was rounded off with a group interview exercise, where we took the group through a generic sample interview question – not to demonstrate the content, but to give students an idea of the sort of dialogue that takes place in an interview. As the interviews are designed to emulate the tutorial system, a discussion-based question can show the students how this might work, and hopefully reassure them that it is a lot more supportive and a lot more active than simply being quizzed, or sitting an exam!

We are very grateful to De Lisle College for hosting us for the day, as well as to all the teachers who accompanied their students. Tomorrow we visit Rushey Mead Academy for a talk with Year 11 students, and visit Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College for Year 12 and Year 13 sessions.

Today was another busy day on our Roadshow in Leicestershire – this time we split the day across visits to two schools. In the morning, we delivered a talk at Rushey Mead Academy, with students joining from Hamilton Academy, Manor High School, Sir Jonathan North School, The Martin High, The City of Leicester College, and the Madani Schools Federation. With around 120 students attending, it was a full house and the students seemed really engaged, especially as the talk was first thing in the morning!

Our Year 12 and 13 talks in the afternoon took us to Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College (WQE for short), a sixth form situated amongst the central campus of the University of Leicester. Amber and I have visited WQE a number of times before, and were both pleased to see an excellent turnout once again to the two talks. Students from Wigston College and Brookvale Groby joined WQE students for our Year 12 talk, with around 60 attending in total. As part of our talk, when discussing some of the aspects of Oxford and Cambridge that set us apart from other universities, I like to talk about how we have access to ‘all the books’ – as libraries with legal deposit status, both Oxford and Cambridge have claim to every book published under UK copyright. One student seemed particularly captivated by this, asking a myriad of questions about the books available and the number of libraries (over 100 across Oxford University), and he seemed genuinely excited by the revelation of access to practically any book ever published. It was great to see students so enthusiastic about the advantages of studying at Oxbridge.

Our final talk of the day was another interview workshop, this time with students attending from The Beauchamp College, Bosworth Academy, Brookvale Groby, Wigston College, Wreake Valley and of course the Year 13 students at WQE, all of whom had applied to Oxford and Cambridge earlier this term. It was fantastic to hear that many of the 60 students who attended had already received invitations to interview, which made the session all the more timely for them! Having moved to a PE classroom for this talk, we were joined by a fully articulated model skeleton – a prop I never knew I needed so much when delivering talks. I confess that I did spend a good portion of the session racking my brains for skeleton-related puns, but never did manage to segue one into the talk…

We engaged with over 230 students today, bringing the running total to almost 500 students. Tomorrow will be a slightly quieter day, as we are only visiting one school. I’m hoping this will leave time to catch up on emails that have arrived in my inbox this week, and maybe even an opportunity to enjoy some free time in Leicester!

Day 3: Wednesday 21 November

After two days of delivering talks to big groups of students from several schools, it was nice to spend today with a smaller number of students, this time just from one school – Wigston College, where we spoke to 12 of the Year 11 students.

It was really interesting to see the reaction from the students change throughout the talk. At first, the students seemed quite shy, a little quiet and several admitted that they weren’t sure whether or not they were considering applying to Oxbridge. However, as our talk progressed, the students became more engaged, more positive, and by the end of the talk seemed visibly more enthusiastic about applying to top universities. We nearly ended up making the students late to their next lesson as they had so many questions to ask us! It was fascinating to see this change within the group, and was very rewarding as so often with larger groups of students, it is difficult to tell whether the whole group are fully engaged.

Day 4: Thursday 22 November

Today was another day of working with students from one school at a time – with Year 12 students from The Beauchamp College in the morning, and students from Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form in the afternoon. It didn’t, however, mean lower numbers, as almost 65 students from Beauchamp turned up for the Year 12 session this morning, and that was after the room for the talk and the time it was held was changed twice! It was standing room only for this first talk, which although not ideal, was really positive in the sense so many students at Beauchamp were interested in applying to Oxford and Cambridge.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we continued on to Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form (HAJC), where we spoke to 26 Year 11 students and eight students in Year 12. The Year 11 students who we spoke to first were very knowledgeable, and whilst neither Amber or I had met any of the students before, seemed very keen and switched-on with regards to applying to University. Of the eight Year 12 students that we spoke to afterwards, four were looking to study some form of biology at university, so clearly had a very inspirational biology teacher! As the group was much smaller, we were able to chat with the students, rather than having to ‘present’ to them, which hopefully meant they were able to take more away from the session, having been able to ask questions directly as we talked through the application process.

Two of the Year 13 students at HAJC who had applied to Oxbridge had recently received invitations to interview, and we were briefly able to speak to one of them, which we hope was especially useful considering that interviews begin in less than two weeks!

Day 5: Friday 23 November

That’s it! The Roadshow is complete! After spending the morning at Robert Smyth Academy, working with their Year 12 and 13 students, as well as hosting Year 11 students from Kibworth School, we’ve completed our week’s tour of schools and colleges in Leicestershire!  Today’s sessions were with smaller numbers, which once again allowed us to deliver the talks in a more conversational manner, giving the students the opportunity to ask questions and make the most of the sessions. The Year 11 students from Kibworth School had visited St Edmund Hall in June this year, so already had some knowledge of Oxford. This allowed us to delve into the application process further, giving the students advice on how best to prepare over the coming weeks and months. Even though it is just under two years until these students would be applying to University, thinking about course choice as early as possible will put them in the best position to be prepared for the application process.

Over the course of the week, we have engaged with around 600 students from 28 schools across Leicestershire. It’s been great meeting so many students, and each of the 13 talks we have given were all hugely rewarding. Amber and I are very grateful to the schools who hosted us throughout the week, and we hope to collaborate again next year, with provisional dates already in the calendar for January, June and beyond!

If you want to find out more about outreach at Teddy Hall, do look at the links below.