This Saturday, the first sessions of our Oxbridge Saturday School will be held. In this blog, I’ll elaborate on the thinking behind the Oxbridge Saturday School and why you might want to enrol yourself or your child onto the course.
1. What is the Oxbridge Saturday School?
The Oxbridge Saturday School is fully online, consisting of 16 sessions lasting 90 minutes each. James Miller, our Oxbridge Saturday School course developer, explains: “Oxbridge has a long-held reputation as the gold standard of teaching – particularly due to its prioritisation of thinking skills and dialogue-based discussion over rote learning subject content. At the Oxbridge Saturday School, we have a syllabus that will make students really think about their subjects and discuss them with an international mix of students, Oxbridge-style, to boost grades at school and bridge the gap to higher education .”
2. Dependent on age, students might join either:
a. The IGCSE programme: to receive learning frameworks to guide answers to questions that they didn’t pre-prepare for an exam, tips and strategies to improve school grades, and enhanced confidence in public speaking. Students also work in teams to create solutions to topical issues and solve challenges. The modules focus on independent learning, creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving.
b. The IB/A level programme: students join a strand related to the course they're hoping to apply for at university. They’ll be taught learning frameworks, thinking skills and methods to apply their knowledge. Students will also come away with specialised advice on university courses, strategies to prepare for entrance tests, and a strong first draft of their personal statement.
Each session is group based to spark conversation, discussion and debate. This focus on group learning is really special and, in my view, one of the strengths of the programme. As I experienced in group supervisions at Cambridge, inquisitive minds tackling the same problems together can generate some rather remarkable solutions.
The problems that students will be tackling allow them to apply their skills to exciting, real-world situations. For example, one task asks students to collaboratively create a solution to a UN sustainable development goal. They may write a speech, develop an engineering product, or come up with a policy proposal, using all the tools in their mental arsenal. This is just one example of how the syllabus encourages creative and innovative thinking.
All of this will be done under the careful guidance of Oxbridge-educated professional tutors. “I’m looking forward to being able to listen to the views of an international mix of students and be able to help them hone their opinions so that they can have academic discussions in a fun, interactive environment,” said Harriet, one of our tutors.
3. Why should I attend the Oxbridge Saturday School?
There are many reasons why students might find the course useful. Here’s a few of them:
a. Promoting emotional intelligence, and independent learning skills: the frameworks taught encourage innovative thinking. These skills can be easily applied to classes at school as well as university. For example, the REAL framework helps order thoughts when answering a question. Standing for research, enthusiasm, analysis and lateral thinking, it encourages students to apply what they already know to help analyse new problems.
b. Improving grades: better ways of thinking translates directly into better grades. In turn, this means a better chance that students will be able to achieve what they want.
c. Help with university admissions: the British university application process can be quite complicated, especially if you’ve come from abroad. I myself found it confusing applying as an international student. The IB/A level programme is tailored to university applications and attending the course will help familiarise yourself with the expectations of the application system.
d. Access to an international community of students learning in English: one of the great benefits of an online course is that students from across the world will be attending the course, allowing participants to interact with a range of different cultures and nationalities. Students will come away more aware of global issues and different perspectives.
This sounds great! How do I sign up?
Sign up at the links below!
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