October will see the launch of the first Inspire Year 13 twilight session for the academic year 2022/23, and this first session will focus on interviews. This year we are also providing an Interview workshop to support our Year 13 Inspire Teachers.

In Year 13, students begin their applications for University. This process begins in September, when UCAS applications open, and involves a significant amount of preparation from students before they can submit their applications to their top five universities. From writing personal statements to choosing a desired course to study, Year 13 students undertake some important decisions.

For candidates who choose to study at Oxbridge, or for certain courses at other Universities, a subject-specific interview may be something they are invited to attend. Oxford likes to interview prospective students for a number of different reasons, the most crucial reason being that it emulates the Oxford teaching style. Oxford supplements lectures, seminars and labs with ‘tutorials’. Tutorials are small classes wherein students discuss ideas with a few other students and a tutor. The interviews are designed to assess a candidate’s ability to study, think, and learn in this way.

Inspire Year 13 Skills Session

The Oxford interview process tends to be associated with a few myths, both in regards to their content and structure. In order to tackle these myths head on, and to better prepare our Year 13 Inspire students, we have designed a Twilight Skills Session that focuses on the Oxford interview process. The workshop is full of activities, advice, and information in regards to the interviews, but has been carefully curated to be of use to all students preparing for higher education, regardless of whether they anticipate an Interview in their subject.

The Inspire Year 13 Skills Session 1 will launch on Monday 17th October, and can be found on the Year 13 Inspire page via the Inspire Digital website.

This year, we have also prepared an interview workshop for the teachers of the pupils on our Inspire Year 13 programme. This live workshop will take place on Wednesday 2nd November and will provide information and guidance on how best to support a candidate’s university application, in addition to activities and advice on how teachers can help their students prepare ahead of their interviews.

We are also offering an Interview workshop to students from the Oxford Consortium for South East. This forms part of the Road to Oxford Webinar Series and will take place on Wednesday 19th October.

Old Library

The Inspire 13 programme makes up one branch of our Inspire 12 &13 Programme for students from non-selective state schools in our college link regions and the Oxford Consortium for South East.