On Wednesday 23rd June 2004, we ran our first "Aspiration Day" for students in Years 9 and 10 who may in the future, wish to apply to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The day was hosted at Trinity College Oxford by the Trinity College Schools Liaison Officer, Joanna Clifford. Former Guilsborough Students, Tom Cave (Lincoln College, reading PPE) and James Milner (St.Hugh's College, reading Biological Science) were present to discuss with the younger students, about life at Oxford, together with some Trinity Students. Miss Lawrence, Mrs. Gunn and Mr. Ditchburn were the staff members who helped to organise the day from Guilsborough.

The most of the talks and activities took place in the Dancing Room in Trinity College. The programme for the day began with a warm -up activity in which students were asked to identify a number of famous people who had been to university and to consider how this might have benefitted them. They were there then shown a presentation about life at Oxford, before hearing from a student at Trinity College about how she has enjoyed her first year. Our students were then able to enjoy lunch in Trinity College dining room, before participating in a debating skills activity based an imaginary court case involving theft of nitroglycerine. The day finished with a Scavenger Hunt in which students were given a wide range of things to find and photograph around Oxford.

We hope to develop our Oxbridge programme in future, with similar days for a wider number of student in Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 who are achieving the academic standards necessary to reach the best universities in the land. As our school motto says, we are "Striving for Excellence".

The images below were taken during the day click the first image to begin a slideshow of all of the images in a larger format. Click here to read student experiences of the day.