Welcome to the St John’s Inspire Programme Summer School – 2022!
On this page you will find information about how to access and navigate the Summer School material and how you can share your work with us. You can also find more information about St John’s, including an interactive tour of the College – so scroll down for more!
How to navigate the Summer School
Your first port of call for all Summer School activities will be the timetable page for your strand of the Summer School – there are three strands so make sure you have the correct Timetable for your strand! You will know which strand you are on from your year group.
All Summer School content will go live on these pages, with new material added every day at 10am between Monday 1st August and Friday 5th August – just click on the links from the Timetable to access all activity pages, videos, skills sessions, and academic talks. There will be a suggested order for each of the sessions, however you are free to work through the material in any order you like!
All activities will be available until Friday 23rd September 2022. This means you can re-watch any sessions you loved, catch up on things you missed, and fit the Summer School around your holidays or other commitments.
What you can expect
This year, the theme of our Year 12 Summer School is Careers. You will be introduced to a featured career each day, where you will learn what people in that career do, ‘meet’ someone working in this field (via video interviews) and have a chance to try out activities related to this topic yourself. In case any career takes your particular interest, there will be links to further resources, which will let you know about the kinds of jobs in this area, and routes you might take to work here.
You will also have the chance to browse our Career Inspiration page, where alumni (past students) of St John’s, along with alumni of Oxford and other universities have spoken to us about their degrees and their careers after university. You might be surprised by some of the unusual directions people have taken after their studies, and how some alumni who studied very different subjects are now working in similar areas!
Share with us!
We would love to see any examples of work that you do during your Inspire Summer School. This can be a photo of something you have made, a picture you have drawn, some written work (e.g. the start of a speech, or the answer to a question we asked), or some thoughts you have about what you have learnt!
You can submit your work by emailing inspire@sjc.ox.ac.uk, from the email address you have used to register for the Inspire programme.
Your email should include your:
- Full name
- School name
- Year group
All pupils who share their work with us before August 31 2022 will be entered into a prize draw! Winning entries from each year group will be selected randomly, and a £10 Amazon voucher will be awarded to each winning entry.
Please note, by submitting your work you are consenting to our terms and conditions. You can view our terms and conditions by clicking here.
St John’s Inspire may publish your work on Inspire Digital, our social media platforms, and other Inspire advertising materials. If you do not consent to having your work published, please state clearly in your email ‘I do not give permission for my work to be published by Inspire‘.
Academic Literature Review Challenge
You will also have the opportunity to submit a more substantial assignment at the end of the Summer School: a review of a piece of academic literature that you have read. You will be given step-by-step video guides to introduce academic literature, how to read this kind of content, and what to look out for when forming your opinion of what you have read. At the end of the video guide series, you will then be able to pick from a few academic literature options (or find your own if you prefer) and write a review on this piece of academic literature.
Instructions for this challenge will be provided on Monday 1 August. As the types of academic literature you encounter can vary across subjects, you will have a choice of learning about academic literature in English, Geography or Medicine – you should pick the subject with material most similar to your subject area (for example, for ‘History’, you should pick the English series). You can work on your academic literature review around your other activities, or set aside some time after you have completed the other activities.
All pupils who submit a review before August 31 2022 will have their review considered as part of the academic literature review challenge. Winning entries will receive a £20 Amazon voucher, and their entries will be featured on Inspire Digital.
Tour of St John’s College
You can explore St John’s virtually via this interactive tour, courtesy of our very own mascot, Agnes the Lamb!
Learn more about life at St John’s, visit our beautiful quads and gardens, explore the library, and view some student accommodation. You’ll also encounter some fun facts along the way – find out why the college library still holds a cannon ball from 1644, which part of the college is haunted by the ghost of a barmaid, and which king allegedly fell asleep and tumbled into the fireplace in the College hall!
Learn more about the College
You can learn more about St John’s College and its buildings by clicking here, and also learn more about the long history of the college, dating back more than 400 years!
Meet the team
The Inspire Programme Summer School is brought to you by the dedicated Access & Outreach Team at St John’s College. Click below to find out more about us!