Post 18 Options Visits

On 4th June we were invited to take a group of students to Magdalen College, Oxford. 22 Year 12 students opted to join this successful visit and were able to tour the college, the city, take a taster history lecture on 16th Century Seville and gather useful information on university and Oxbridge applications.

On Friday 6th June, the entire Y12 cohort attended the UCAS Exhibition in Sheffield (which also had presentations and stands for apprenticeship providers). This allowed them to gain some first hand information on the courses available after HSFC.

On Monday 8th July, the Y12 cohort took another whole year trip to the University of Nottingham where they engaged in campus tours, personal statement guidance and a student life seminar.

Work Experience Week

During the week of 1st-5th July our Y12 students undertook a diverse range of work experience placements.
Charlie B spent the week with an architecture firm using professional software to develop an exciting building design for a coffee shop and book shop in Sneinton, he said: “Work experience greatly helped me in developing skills that will help me in not only my university applications but also in my future career, working in an office environment taught me valuable skills in professionalism and computer skills, plus presentation skills through me presenting my work to the office. Work experience is incredibly valuable and helpful and I recommend it to everyone no matter their desired career.”
Esmé B spent their work experience at the University of Nottingham Physics Department. “We attended a series of lectures on topics including MRIs and MEGs (a specialty of Nottingham), Cosmology and Nanophysics. It was interesting to tour the University facilities like the teaching labs, the Inflativerse (an inflatable planetarium) and the black hole lab where we observed a demonstration of a black hole simulation (and a toy duck pulled into the modelled black hole!). We also participated in experiments that we wouldn’t be able to do at school such as a practical observing beta particle absorption. It was great to have the opportunity to interview academics researching many different areas of physics and understand more about life as an academic. Finally, a lot of the week involved engaging in academic sources and putting together a mock grant proposal in groups for an investigation of our choice. During the work experience we developed transferable skills in academic paper writing, presentations, interviewing, working in a team and independence in a university environment, as well as insight into areas beyond the A Level curriculum. It was really interesting to look deeper into areas of physics that were new to us such as medical physics, as well as getting a feel for life as a university student or academic.”