Outreach video project launched

25 March 2021

The Oxford for East England outreach consortium – bringing together Hertford, Balliol and Wadham Colleges – has launched a new initiative to support school pupils whose education has been disrupted during the pandemic.

 

Drawing on the expertise of Oxford’s graduate community, the Springboard project showcases the wide range of research areas in which our students are engaged. These 15-20 minute videos form a brand-new bank of super-curricular resources, targeted at students in Key Stage 4 and 5 who want to extend their learning outside the curriculum. Super-curricular activities can play an important role in developing pupil’s academic interests and in helping decide which subjects they want to study.

“We hope these videos will be a versatile resource for schools and pupils alike and will help students to deepen their knowledge of what studying at university is like,” says Dr Kathryn Boast, STEM Outreach Officer at Hertford. Springboard is one of the initial projects announced by the Oxford for East England consortium, following the launch of the Teacher Forums webinar series last year.

Springboard has been an exciting opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues at other colleges and to develop resources that will benefit students from across the East of England and beyond.

Nathan Stazicker, Outreach & Communications Officer

The project started with an initial training session led by Wadham College’s Access and Outreach Officer, Dr Hugh Munro. “The response from graduates across the University has been fantastic,” Hugh says. “So many Masters’ and doctoral students stepped forward, willing to share their interest and expertise with younger ages. It has been wonderful seeing the range of topics suggested for sessions highlighting the breadth of fascinating topics currently being researched at Oxford.”

This project aims not only to help students learn beyond their curriculum, but also offer a window into the diversity of research interests at Oxford, and the bigger, often inter-disciplinary questions our students are exploring in their studies. Pravahi Osman, The David Freeman Outreach Officer at Balliol says “we hope that able students at GCSE and A Level will engage with this material to extend their learning and explore the interdisciplinary nature of learning at Oxford.”

With more videos in the works, the first set of Springboard resources can currently be seen on the shared Oxford for East England website. Any Oxford graduate students interested in contributing to future rounds of the project should contact outreach@hertford.ox.ac.uk for more details.