Twilight Sessions
As we entered the fourth year for the Year 12 Inspire Programme, there were two exciting updates for 2020-2021!
First, the Year 12 Inspire programme expanded! We were delighted that the programme was able to open to pupils at all non-selective state schools and sixth-form colleges in the Oxford for South East group, as well as all of the St John’s Link Local Authority regions: the London Boroughs of Ealing and Harrow; Brighton and Hove; East and West Sussex; and Southampton.
Second, the Year 12 Inspire Programme for 2020-2021 was run online, using Webinars and Interactive Sessions. During the programme session recordings and further resources were also uploaded here on Inspire Digital, so pupils who could not attend live still had access to all the programme content.
Each Twilight Session included an academic taster, with ‘Going Further’ documents which contained competition challenges and further resources. Additionally, pupils participated in a Skills Development workshop in each Twilight Session. The full timetable can be viewed below, along with links to the Going Further Documents for each session.
Timetable of Twilight Sessions
Arts & Humanities
| Session | Academic Taster | Skills Development |
| 1 | Professor Hannah Skoda (History); Crime and punishment in Medieval times Going Further | Oxford Explained & Oxford Admissions Tests; The SJC Access Team |
| 2 | Article edition: Dr Samuel Derbyshire (Anthropology); African history and contemporary life | |
| 3 | Professor Nicholas Jones (Philosophy); Logic and Reality Going Further | Post 16 Living Independently (Uni Money); The Money charity |
| 4 | Professor Gillian Rose (Geography); How cities use digital technologies Going Further | Personal Statements; Causeway Education |
| 5 | Dr George Potts (English); Modern poetry Going Further | Basic Recipes on a Budget; Kids Table |
| 6 | Stephen Nitu (Ancient History); Athenian Democracy Going Further | Managing Mental Health; Positively MAD |
STEM
| Session | Academic Taster | Skills Development |
| 1 | Dr Keno Juchems (Computer Science); Is your computer more intelligent than you? Going Further | Oxford Explained & Oxford Admissions Tests; The SJC Access Team |
| 2 | Article edition: Professor Alan Grafen (Mathematics); Population Genetics | |
| 3 | Dr Ana Wallis (Genetics); DNA Replication & Professor Charles Newton (Medicine), Paediatric neurology Going Further | Post 16 Living Independently (Uni Money); The Money charity |
| 4 | Professor Gillian Rose (Geography); How cities use digital technologies Going Further & Professor Katherine Blundell (Astrophysics); Active galaxies and how they form Going Further | Personal Statements; Causeway Education |
| 5 | Dr Ken Amor (Earth Sciences); Climate change Going Further | Basic Recipes on a Budget; Kids Table |
| 6 | Dr Elizabeth Wonnacott (Applied Linguistics); How do we acquire language? Going Further | Managing Mental Health; Positively MAD |
Virtual Summer School
Our virtual Summer School was themed on ‘Careers’. Each day, there was an in-depth look at the featured career for the day, which included a video interview with someone working in that area and activities which let pupils try out some key skills of that industry. Additionally, we developed our Career Inspiration Hub for the Summer School, which enabled pupils to find out about a range of Careers of St John’s Alumni and friends. This popular resource is now a permanent feature on our website, for all pupils to use.
Responding to feedback from the previous year, all parts of the Virtual Summer School remained live for almost 2 months, so pupils could come back and work through this material again in their own time. For the Summer School, both strands of the Year 12 Inspire Programme came together, allowing pupils to mix and match, looking at any session that interested them. Alongside featured careers, each day pupils were offered a skills session, and an academic session.
You can see the timetable for the week here.
To encourage pupils to ‘Share with Us’, the summer school had a prize draw for any work pupils produced during the Summer School, which they shared with us during August. Additionally, Year 12 pupils were challenged to create academic posters themed on Personal Identity – you can view the winning posters and other Summer School work by following the links below.