Oxford University Open Day

On 6th and 7th July 2011, fourteen of our pupils, accompanied by Mr Havard, Mr Davies and Mrs Thomas, attended Oxford University’s open days.  Pupils stayed at Wadham College, New College and Keble College and took part in a wide range of activities and tours as well as attending subject specific talks and sampling the vast array of cultural experiences (such as the Pitt Rivers museum, with its famous shrunken heads) that the city offers.

Most informative was a trip, arranged by Mrs Thomas, around Exeter College with former pupil and superlative tour guide Rhys Maliphant, who left Whitchurch last year and is currently reading English at Oxford.  Rhys talked about studying at a college formerly attended by the likes of Alan Bennett, Martin Amis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman and allowed us special access to dorm rooms, tutorial rooms, the chapel and the gardens and even showed us a section of the Bodleian which is used as the hospital wing in the Harry Potter films!  He offered hints and tips about interviews, personal statement writing and preparatory reading lists and then fielded questions from our keen Oxbridge applicants.  To finish off, he took us to the hallway which inspired the opening scene of Philip Pullman’s ‘Northern Lights’, in which Lyra and her daemon move silently past the portraits under which Rhys now takes his breakfast!

It was great to see Rhys positively glowing about his experiences at Oxford.  He is an inspiration to our highly motivated young adults who will undoubtedly strive equally hard to attain their places next year.  We wish them the very best of luck with their applications and will continue to support them throughout the UCAS process.