Welcome to Year 11 Inspire Scholars & Teachers from Ealing & Harrow!

The pupils and teachers are celebrating the culmination of their three years on our pilot sustained-contact Inspire Programme for Years 9, 10 & 11. Since 2019, pupils from 24 schools across our two London link boroughs have been participating in our pioneering three-year pilot outreach programme, which we’re thrilled is now being rolled out as the Inspire Scholars Programme for Years 9, 10 & 11 across all of St John’s link regions from September.

Due to the pandemic we have unfortunately had to postpone trips to Oxford for pupils on the programme on several occasions since 2020, and so for most of them this will mark the first time they have had the opportunity to visit the College since they enrolled on the programme in Year 9. Thanks to the efforts of the Teacher Coordinators in each school, we have been able to keep going throughout the whole pandemic with a full programme of virtual activities and in-person Inspire Clubs in schools, but we are excited finally now to be able to bring participants into college in person, now that they have finished their GCSEs – better late than never!

These day trips, which will take place over the first two weeks of July, will give pupils and their teachers an opportunity to see the College on guided tours with current undergraduate students, to have lunch in Hall, and to learn more about St John’s and Oxford University as they prepare to enter sixth form. They will also be able to explore the University further, with a series of visits to Oxford’s museums and libraries organised jointly with our colleagues at the Ashmolean Museum, Bodleian Library, Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Museum of Natural History.

And the programme doesn’t end here, of course: the academic year will be capped by both a virtual and a residential summer school: 48 pupils will return to St John’s from 27–29 July for our first in-person summer school in three years, whilst all other participants will be able to join our usual virtual summer school on Inspire Digital in August, packed with academic talks, skills sessions, competitions, and more.

We look forward to working with all of the participating pupils and schools next year: all pupils from the programme are be encouraged to join our Year 12 & 13 Inspire Programme, and we can’t wait to welcome new cohorts of Year 9 pupils from all of the participating schools onto the Inspire Scholars Programme from September!