StuDents Explore Ancient world in Oxford
“I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity as the residential was a fantastic experience to gain a greater insight into life at Oxford.
Three of our A Level Ancient History students have been exploring the distant past on a fascinating three-day residential at Queen’s College, Oxford University.
The students, Julia Baszak, Emma Hughes and Millie Waters attended taster sessions in classics and ancient history delivered by Oxford university tutors. They had a unique ‘behind the scenes’ visit to the world-famous Ashmolean museum where they were able to handle ancient artefacts. The visit also provided a wonderful opportunity to gain an insight into the life of an Oxford university student as they stayed at the beautiful Corpus Christi College.
Julia Baszak said, “I found the Latin workshop and Catullus’ poems the most interesting. I’m definitely going to look into Catullus more as I really enjoyed his poetry. Oxford is a really stunning place especially the architecture of a lot of the buildings. The colleges were also stunning both inside and outside.
This residential definitely gave me a better insight on if I want to study at Oxford, what it would be like and what I want to do. I would say that meeting the current students there also helped me with this as they told us a lot about how it all works, what they think about it and how they came to pick their subjects and colleges. Overall it was an amazing experience.
Fellow ancient history student Emma Hughes commented, “I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity as the residential was a fantastic experience to gain a greater insight into life at Oxford. I was particularly intrigued in the sessions that explored classics as I am now interested in taking Greek or Latin at University. This residential has influenced me significantly to apply to Oxford, especially with meeting current students who are studying similar subjects I am interested in as I hope to study classics or classical archaeology and ancient history.”
Millie added, “The residential was a great opportunity to explore classics in depth and helped me verify that it (or another related subject) is what I want to pursue as a degree. Also, being able to visit Oxford and meet people who study there was incredibly useful in allowing me to see what life could potentially be like as a student.”
Blackpool Sixth Ancient history teacher and Excellence Programme coordinator, Peter Wright commented,“This was a brilliant opportunity for our students to discover what living and learning at Oxford is like. It is a fantastic way to boost their enthusiasm and aspiration - there is no reason why our talented and hardworking Blackpool students cannot aim to study at any prestigious university. We will support them every step of the way in making a highly competitive application.”
