After digging through Roman trade documents, dinner party wares and petrified library scrolls in Class 1 of our Year 11 Inspire course in early January, we’re now excited to release Class 2! This time we will consider the role volcanoes played in the demise of the dinosaurs. We’ll learn about the geographical records that volcanic…
Category: Years 9, 10 & 11 Inspire
Inspire Year 11: Class 1 materials released
We hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday season and New Year’s! Today we are excited to release the first class materials for our Year 11 Inspire Programme. This year we’re considering the question “What is the power of a volcano?” In this class we learn how to engage with primary sources and historical materials in…
Year 11: Introduction to the course
We are delighted to welcome 578 pupils onto the St John’s Inspire Programme for Year 11! Click the link below for an introduction to the course. Over the next few months we will be sending you class materials via email from inspire@sjc.ox.ac.uk, so please make sure you add this address to your email contacts so…
Inspire Year 11 Launch
St John’s is excited to launch the Year 11 Inspire Programme for 2019-20! Find out more about the programme and how to sign up here.
Easter Challenge Winners
Winner Matyl K, The Sacred Heart Language College It is evident that the video game industry is the fastest growing industry from $10 billion in 1990 to almost $135 billion in 2018. Arguably, this is a result of their ability to engage and transfix people, achieved by the emotional reward that they offer: feelings of…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 6 “What makes a successful video game? Final Challenge”
In this final issue of Year 11 Inspire, we want you to tell us what makes a successful video game. There is a chance to win a £50 amazon gift voucher! Please follow this link for Issue 6 “What makes a successful video game? Final challenge” Easter Holiday Challenge Terms and Conditions
Making money from video games
This week we asked you to think about the question: What would be the advantages and disadvantages of giving a video game away for free? Very well done to everyone who sent us their answers. Here are the best responses we received: Overall Winner Jay K (Greenford High School) Personally, I believe that giving video…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 5 “How to make money from video games”
In the fifth edition of Year 11 Inspire, we will be thinking about the economic value of video games. We will be hearing from St John’s economics tutor, Dr Kate Doornik, about how free games such as Fortnite can be incredibly lucrative, and looking at issues surrounding copyrights. Please follow this link for Issue 5…
Year 11 Inspire – Summer School
We are running a summer school our Year 11 Inspire Programme students on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th August 2019. This is an excellent opportunity to see what being an Oxford student might be like! For full details, please see our flyer: If you would like to attend, please complete an application form and return it…
Should violent games be banned?
Some of the most popular video games contain high levels of violence – Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption – to name a few. In Issue 4 “What can we learn from video games?”, we asked our students to consider whether the content of video games should be more strictly regulated. Here…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 4 “What can we learn from video games?”
In this fourth edition of Year 11 Inspire, we will be considering what we might be able to learn from video games. We will be hearing from Oxford historian Dr Philippa Byrne about the historical significance, and discussing the role of violence in video games. We will also be challenging you to think how video…
Turtle Academy Programming Challenge
Well done to everyone who participated in our Turtle Academy Programming Challenge as part of Year 11 Inspire’s third issue “Design your own video game”. Turtle Academy is a simple-to-use website providing free lessons in basic computer programming. Using the LOGO language, you can create amazing shapes and patterns – give it a try! Here…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 3 “Design your own video game”
In the third edition of Year 11 Inspire, you will be thinking about designing your own video game. We will be hearing from James Hyde, a games designer himself who works for Creative Assembly in Horsham, West Sussex, and using Flowlab to get some insight into how computer programmes are generated. Please follow this link…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 2 “Building Characters and Worlds”
In the second issue of Year 11 Inspire, we will be looking at how designers and developers use language to build characters and worlds inside their video games. We will be hearing from St John’s English Tutor, Professor Carolyne Larrington and Oxford Graduate in Linguistics, Maren Fichter. Please follow this link for Issue 2 “Building…
Year 11 Inspire – Issue 1 “Are video games bad for you?”
In this first issue, we will look at whether video games can be considered bad for you, and will ask the question: “Is it possible to become addicted to video games?” We will hear from former St John’s English student Dr Tom Chatfield, and there will be articles, quizzes and challenges to try. Please follow…
Year 11 Inspire – Welcome to the programme!
30 minutes a week to help get you ready for university. A warm welcome to everyone who has signed up for our Year 11 Inspire Programme! This programme aims to provide you with opportunities to pursue your academic interests, to develop your study skills, and to encourage you to become more confident in your abilities….
Candy Crush Challenge
Well done to all of our Year 11 Inspire students, who have been battling hard in this week’s challenge: Candy Crush! How to play Candidates were asked to play Candy Crush on their devices for 15-30 minutes, then take a screenshot of their highest scores and e-mail it to inspire@sjc.ox.ac.uk. The top three contestants on…