Year Twelve Assembly Wednesday 27^th September 2017

Year Thirteen are just completing their Personal Statements for UCAS. The purpose of this assembly is to alert you to a very wide range of amazing free opportunities which can massively enrich your experience of Year Twelve and help you choose the right university course or apprenticeship for September 2019.

Opportunities outside Cheney

1.    The Curiosity Carnival – advertised last week on the blog and taking place this Friday – all the ticketed events are sold out but you could drop into the Curiosity Corner on Broad Street from 12-7pm and see acrobatics, bite-size talks at Curiosity Corner, curiously interesting demonstrations, walking tours, and live music.  See http://www.ox.ac.uk/curiosity-carnival/whats-on

2.    Headington School is opening up a series of very interesting STEM lectures on topics relating to Science and Engineering – you can go unaccompanied by registering for a free ticket at headington.eventbrite.com. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/headington-school-14368608089

A list of the talks can be found on the noticeboard outside L6 – there is a vaccine talk on 12^th October, an Engineering talk on 30^th October, and an Adventures in Science talk on 2^nd November.  If you are interested in STEM then it may well be worth looking ahead to the Year in Industry as a Gap Year possibility – please see http://www.etrust.org.uk/the-year-in-industry

3.    Thank you very much indeed to those who came to the Law talk on Monday, and to those who have signed up for the Law Lecture on 11^th October – I have a few spare letters and places – please see me at the end.  If you got at least 5As and are from a group which is underrepresented at university, you may be interested in the Pathways to Law programme – two Cheney students took part three years ago.  Both very much enjoyed it and are now studying at top universities  https://www.suttontrust.com/programmes/pathways-programmes-2/pathways-to-law/

4.    There are some amazing opportunities to work with staff at Oxford University Museums, with their youth action teams, which I advertised on the blog earlier this week.  This would be a way to get to know some of the finest museum collections in the world, and to engage with exciting and dynamic programmes. 

5.    There is a USA College Day in London this Friday and Saturday if you are interested in going to Uni in the US.  http://www.fulbright.org.uk/events/usa-college-day?utm_source=sprint&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=college-day-reg-2017&mc_cid=734fbaf3eb&mc_eid=[UNIQID]

In the last few years only two students from Cheney have gone to US universities for their undergraduate degree, but you shouldn’t absolutely feel that you have to go to university, if at all, in the UK.  You may be interested in doing an apprenticeship instead of going to university and I hope to have an apprenticeship assembly before half term.  For the majority of you, who are likely to go to a UK university, we will be holding a students and parents information evening on Wednesday 14^th March, and we will all be going to a UCAS Convention with hundreds of universities, employers and apprenticeship providers in London on Thursday 15^th March.  Letters about this will follow shortly – please return them as soon as possible. 

6.    Two weeks today, there will be a presentation in assembly from Oxford Brookes about Brookes Engage, a two year programme designed to help you to prepare for university – any university, not just Brookes. The Cheney students who have taken part over the last three years have very much valued the monthly activities which take place and the summer residential.  You can see some former Cheney students, now at university, and find out more information at https://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying-at-brookes/schools-and-colleges/activities/brookes-engage/

Opportunities within Cheney

1.     There are also many interesting opportunities either within the school or linked to it.  I hope that some of you doing Sociology or Geography will be going to Professor Danny Dorling’s lecture on the costs of inequality which is taking place today at St Edward’s School at 5pm. As you may know, Professor Dorling was at Wood Farm Primary and then Cheney before becoming one of the UK’s most well-known Geographers.  Another former Cheney student, now working for the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Agnes Norris Keiller, is going to lecture to all Geographers, Sociologists, Historians and Economists who do not have a lesson then, on Inequality and Poverty in Britain in the last fifty years during Period Five on Wednesday 12^th October, two weeks today.

2.    In school community service will also open up to you many opportunities to extend your skills, whether in supporting student learning in the classroom, or work on events like set design for the school production.  Please see Art, D&T, English, Humanities, Maths, Music, Science and PE department information for the many possibilities and read the list of extra-curricular activities to take part in or offer help with.  If you want to develop your public speaking skills please feel free to join Cheney Debating Society which re-starts with our Oxford Union coach Rosa Thomas tomorrow week (Thursday 5^th October)

3.    I would particularly like to tell you about the following opportunities:  on Friday 20^th October, there is going to be an all-day Book Slam for Year Seven.  Dr Robinson would welcome twelve helpers to support small groups of students who will be designing imaginary worlds with the guidance of a professional author and a professional illustrator.  The Book Slam is preparation for the Festival of Imagined Worlds on 9^th February, in the week of the school production of Narnia.  Over thirty different organisations, nine authors and four book illustrators will be visiting the school to share their enthusiasm and expertise from 2.30 to 7pm – volunteers to work with them and to help the many hundreds of visitors we expect would be very much welcome. 

4.    On Friday 10^th November, from 2-5pm, there will be a World War One Collection Day run by the University of Oxford in the school library. Cheney students and member of the wider community are invited to bring in their artefacts, family photos and letters and memories about the First World War. Dr Robinson would welcome anyone who wants to attend and also some volunteers to help who would be given training in advance.  There is also an opportunity to work on a project to put a display of the History of Cheney here in the canteen. 

5.    There will be extended assemblies on Tuesday 14^th November (with the Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee) and on Tuesday 28^th November (with the British-Pakistani writer Tariq Ali). We are also very much looking forward to welcoming Caroline Lucas MP, Co-leader of the Green Party, on Friday 19^th January.  She will be talking to the entire Sixth Form and launching a series of green workshops from 3-5pm on that day.  Dr Robinson would like to work with some students interested in raising environmental awareness in advance of the visit – please speak to her directly or to me if you would like to be involved. 

Practical Detail

If you plan to take a resit in Maths or English this November, please see Ms Fischer in her office immediately after this assembly – the deadline for entries is imminent.