Today is the first day of the Somerville Access Roadshow, where student ambassadors from Somerville College will visit eight state schools to widen access to Oxford and higher education in general. We really hope that over the next few days we’ll be able to make a positive impact on hundreds of school children across Hounslow and Kingston.
Bright and early this morning at 5am, nine Student Ambassadors left Somerville for Hounslow to begin the first day of the Roadshow. We’ll be visiting four schools in Hounslow today: Kingsley Academy, Lampton Academy, Chiswick School and The Green School. On Tuesday, we’ll be travelling to Kingston where we’re bringing our roadshow to seven schools: Coombe Girls’ School, Coombe Boys’ School, Tolworth Girls’ School, Chessington Community College, The Hollyfield School, Raynes Park, and Southborough High School.
Over the past term myself, former Access and Admissions Officer Grace Barnes (Medicine, 2013) and former JCR Vice President Sam Billington (PPE,2013) have been working with the schools to create a positive, interactive workshop which will cover a number of different angles of Oxford. Our workshop will include discussions about applying to Oxford, the benefits of Higher Education and why Oxford is different to other universities, all while dispelling the myths and stereotypes about our university. In addition, the pupils will get to participate in small group question and answer sessions with Student Ambassadors, giving them the opportunity to ask questions and settle any worries that they may have.
We’ll be speaking to up to 100 pupils in each school, from a mixture of Year 10, 11 and 12. Furthermore, we’ll be speaking to pupils from all sorts of backgrounds and abilities – from those already performing well in school to those who don’t believe Oxford is an option for them. We hope to demystify the idea of Oxford and Higher Education and show that studying at Oxford is achievable, and more importantly, an achievable option for them.
We’re really looking forward to getting the Show on the Road! Also, we would like to thank all our very generous donors who made this initiative happen through their support of the crowdfunding campaign earlier this year.
To find out more about the Roadshow, and for updates on our progress, please follow the Somerville College Access and Admissions Facebook page.