St John’s is delighted to be celebrating the first birthday of its innovative Inspire Programme. This dynamic outreach initiative is focused on non-selective state schools in our link regions of the London Boroughs of Ealing and Harrow, and consists of a carefully structured programme for students from Years 9 to 13. Over these five years, pupils with promise are encouraged to raise their aspirations, to stretch themselves academically, to develop their interests and to grow in confidence, so that they can make well-founded applications to top Universities such as Oxford.
Our first year has been incredibly busy, exciting and rewarding. We have met hundreds of pupils, in their schools and in Oxford, and shared with them, and with their teachers, the joys of developing their knowledge, discovering what Oxford has to offer and aiming high for their future.
The programme began by concentrating on pupils in Years 11 and 12, the key years for making these vital decisions about their future. About 65 Year 11 pupils attended a series of Academic Taster Days in Oxford, dynamic, hands-on days full of tours, activities and talks on either STEM or Humanities subjects. On one such day, following a talk on ‘Why museums collect and how we can learn from objects’, pupils visited the Ashmolean Museum where they enjoyed an object handling session. The chance to get up-close, to touch the past, to hold it in their hands, was a real revelation. […]
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