VI Form students with Oxbridge aspirations

Encouraging news from the Island Innovation VI Form Campus. Ed


The Island Innovation VI Form Campus are delighted that all eight of our Oxford and Cambridge applicants have been invited for interview at these prestigious universities.

Following the recent national news that students from state schools are at a disadvantage when applying to university, due to poor quality personal statements, this 100% success rate proves that our students, supported by our experienced staff, have got themselves noticed out of 1000’s of applications.

Awaiting results of interviews
All of the interviews have now taken place and the students are anxiously waiting to hear how they got on.

They should all know by the middle of January.

Three have their sights on Cambridge
Three students have applied to Cambridge: Ashley Russell for Computer Science at Clare College; Jana Hueppe for Natural Sciences at Downing College and Molly Rolf for Linguistics at Magdelen College.

Five (hope to) go west to Oxford
The other five students have applied to Oxford University: Alexander Scheeser to Baliol College for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), Caitlin Salter to St. John’s for Chemistry, Misha Cooke to St. Edmund Hall for Physics, Holly Freeborn for English at Somerville College and Katie Daysh for History at Magdalen.

Without doubt the interview process has been extremely tough and challenging. Some Oxbridge tutors are renowned for reducing students to tears during the interview process. As one of our students commented: ‘At least I didn’t cry!’

Intense entrance tests
Prior to the interviews most of the Oxford applicants had to sit subject specific entrance tests, whilst others were given tests during their interviews. Students applying to Oxford always stay overnight in one of the colleges, giving them the opportunity to ‘taste’ student life.

During this time they are looked after by student ambassadors, who make them feel extremely welcome. All of our students returned having had a really good time, despite the ordeal of the interview.

Proud of them all
Regardless of the outcome, we are extremely proud of these students. All of them have offers from other ‘top’ universities such as; Imperial College London, York, Bath, Exeter, Southampton and Warwick.

We wish all of our students, the best of luck with their choices following A levels.