A highly successful English Study Day for Year 12 pupils

The English Study Day offers talented year 12 students who are interested in reading English at university an insight into the strengths of the Oxford course and the realities of studying and living here.

After a welcome talk they attended a series of 4 seminars, led by the English tutors at St John's. These included ‘Malory’s The Fair Maid of Astalot’ with Professor Carolyn Larrington, ‘Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn’ with Professor Patrick Hayes, ‘Milton’s Paradise Lost’ with Professor Noel Sugimura, and ‘Thinking with/in Shakespeare’ with Dr Michael Hetherington.

Lunch was spent talking with current students and enjoying a guided tour of the College. 

The day ended with a Question and Answer Session, where tutors and current students responded to the students' questions about the application process, the course and the College, and more informal discussion over tea. 

The students gave very positive feedback on their experiences of the day:

• ‘I loved discussing the texts with the different tutors. I felt that I could vocalise my opinions with confidence. It was not at all an intimidating environment.’
  
• ‘My favourite part was attending the seminars with the tutors. The freedom to articulate our points of view and general discussion was amazing and also very different from school, which is exciting!’
  
• ‘The variety of the seminars allowed me to get an impression of the breadth of the course and the different teaching styles of the tutors.’
  
• ‘[My favourite parts were…] The seminars and being able to engage with the tutors and pupils, as well as having the opportunity to find out more about Oxford specifically in the Q&A at the end.’