“Well, my brother was already studying at Brock and he was happy with it. Plus, my mum didn’t want us going to different places. Brock just struck me as a good college and I’d heard good things about it.”

“I studied for my GCSEs at Applemore College, which is a school even though they call it a college.”

“I’m really keen on science and helping people, and, importantly, I want to do both. I think that becoming a doctor could be a good way to achieve that. “

“Probably the teachers. They’re enthusiastic and whenever I have any questions I can just go and ask them and they’re always really helpful and supportive.”

I’ve engaged with quite a few Enrichment opportunities. At the moment I’m doing yoga and the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). I’ve also been following the Medical Matters Enrichment option, which is something for people who want to become doctors or nurses, so it’s quite nice meeting with similar people to talk to about how to achieve your ambitions. The teacher who runs Medical Matters knows me well, so she wrote my university reference and advised on my personal statement.

To change the subject, the EPQ is really useful for learning skills to do with research, which is a large part of what the University of Oxford does.  For example, the EPQ is a good way to learn how to do referencing and how to know which sources are good and things like that.”

“Well, I wanted to see if I could get in.”

“My Personal Tutor helped with some things, and the teacher who wrote my reference – Rachel Fowkes – was able to have a look through my personal statement along with some other staff members. All of them gave me useful feedback and told me how I could improve it.”

“Well, I wonder… Maybe I want to become a Doctor – haha.”

“I already wanted to become a doctor to begin with, from around the age of five. However, engaging with Medical Matters helped show me how I could get there.”