Thank you to our student access and outreach volunteers

This Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June), we want to say a huge thank you to the students who give their time to support access and outreach at Teddy Hall. Their commitment makes a real difference to our work, helping us to connect with prospective students, and strengthen our links with schools we work with and the wider Oxford community.

We currently have 66 Student Ambassadors, with 25 recruited this academic year alone. Together, they have contributed over 200 hours of volunteering, with more than 75% of those hours coming from our 15 most engaged volunteers. Our volunteers support a wide range of activity across College, including helping with school visits, lead college tours, take part in Q&As, and running critical thinking activities. When schools visit St Edmund Hall, what they most often remember are their interactions with ambassadors. It’s our volunteers’ enthusiasm, warmth and friendliness that help make Oxford feel more welcoming and accessible.

Alongside this, our Primary School Twinning Mentors volunteer their time at our twinned primary school, Orchard Meadows, in Blackbird Leys, where they tutor younger pupils in Maths and English. The Primary School Twinning Mentors play a different but equally important role, helping to build confidence, aspiration and connection among local primary pupils, whilst connecting Teddy Hall to the wider city.

We celebrate our volunteers in a number of ways throughout the year. Each term, we award Ambassador of the Term, with vouchers going to students who have given exceptional support, whether for the number of hours they have volunteered or for making a particular effort. We also invite some of our most engaged ambassadors to our annual Outreach Formal, which is a chance to thank them properly, enjoy a meal together and recognise the community they help create.

A huge thank you to everyone who has volunteered this year, whether for one event or many. Your time, energy and enthusiasm are central to what we do.

To find out more about Volunteers Week, please visit their page.

Are you a current student interested in volunteering? Visit seh.ac/ambassadors to find out more about the Student Ambassador Scheme, and seh.ac/twinning to find out more about volunteering with the twinning programme. You can also contact Teddy Hall’s Outreach team via schools.liaison@seh.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions, or if you just want an informal chat about how you can get involved.

“Being at Oxford means students have the tendency to get stuck in a bubble of university life and intense workloads. I have found volunteering both as a student ambassador and as a primary school twinning mentor, not only highly rewarding but a great chance to interact with the much wider Oxford community and younger pupils, and to take a break from the demanding university lifestyle. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested!”- Abi Lovelock-Blair, JCR Access Officer 2025-26