Super-Curricular Opportunities

  • Over the coming weeks and months we are building up an amazing directory of super-curricular opportunities to pass on to your Sixth Form students to help them with greater depth understanding as well as to support the academic section in their UCAS personal statement.

COMPETITIONS (extensive list being added throughout March 2021 - check back soon)

Economics  
  • Interest Rate Challenge, the competition designed for 16 to 18 year old students across the UK - details
English 
  • Connell Guides Short Story Competition, open to all year 11 students - details 
  • Commonwealth Essay competition, open to anyone between 14-18 years of age - details 
  • Christopher Tower Poetry Competition, open to 16-18 year old students in the UK to write a poem and is run by Christchurch College Oxford - details 
Humanities 
  • St John's College Classics and Ancient History Essay Competition, open to all UK students currently studying in Year 12 - details 

SUPER-CURRICULAR IDEAS FOR VARIOUS SUBJECTS

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE -MYHEPLUS - details
  • Excellent web site for super-curricular materials
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE SUBJECT MASTERCLASSES - details
  • These are subject-specific events that offer students a flavour of undergraduate study and an introduction to the University of Cambridge. The Masterclasses provide students with an opportunity to explore topics of interest beyond what is covered within the A Level syllabus including: Chemistry, Engineering, Genetics, Geography, History, Languages, Mathematics, and Psychology.
LONDON  SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE) OUTREACH - details
  • Mentoring, tutoring, pathways to Law, pathways to banking and finance, Saturday school. Often aimed at students from London schools but their free lecture programme is open to all. 
LONDON  SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE) FREE LECTURES - details
  • Free Lecture programme and podcasts. 
KING'S COLLEGE LONDON - FACTOR MATHS PROGRAMME - details
  • This is a Maths club aimed at Y12 & Y13 students which offers students challenging problems aimed at developing and enriching thinking. Criteria apply in terms of location and diversity. 
STUDENT INVESTOR CHALLENGE - details
  • Each year, Year 12 can be part of a major competition, organised by the London Institute of Banking and Finance, which can last several months. It will provide a useful insight into trading in stocks and shares. The Student Investor Challenge gives students the chance to experience what it’s like being a stock broker in a fast-paced and competitive market. Teams, consisting of four members aged between 14 and 19, take control of two investment portfolios with £100,000 of virtual money for each one to invest in the stock market.
ETON SUMMER SCHOOL: July in Year 12 - details
  • For your most highly achieving students in Year 12 with Grade 8/9 at GCSE. Ten day residential at Eton College. The residential course costs but those on a bursary can apply for financial support. Only 120 students can attend and location and being a state school are factors. 
SUTTON TRUST SUMMER SCHOOLS - details
  • Fantastic summer schools at one of twelve partner universities (Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial, KCL, Nottingham, Oxford, St. Andrews, UCL, Warwick, Royal Veterinary College) for high achieving students from low or middle income families. The Summer Schools are 100% free. There are 130 different courses across 11 of the UK’s top universities. The dates for the Summer Schools vary by subject and university.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY UNIQ SUMMER SCHOOLS -details
  • UNIQ is open to students studying in their first year of further education, who are based at UK state schools/colleges. Students make a single application between December and January and can be selected to participate in one of two activities: UNIQ Digital or UNIQ Spring and Summer. Register between November and February if interested.
FUTURELEARN (MOOC) - details
  • A range of short online courses to deepen subject knowledge through this amazing MOOC site (Massive Open Online Community). Very useful for stretch and challenge and a students’ personal statements. Free to access and complete each course though there is an optional payment for a certificate. 
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK PODCASTS 
  • A wide range of podcasts from politics to engineering - details
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD - 'EXPLORE YOUR SUBJECT'
  • Explore the resources or select a subject area such as Humanities or Social Sciences, followed by a specific subject (Classics, English, etc.)  - details
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD READING BANK
  • A very attractively designed list of books to read with reviews and Youtube clips - details
TEDTALKS
  • Great entry level strategy as students can simply search by theme and then watch a video detail

GRESHAM COLLEGE

  • Educational talks and videos for the public free of charge. There are over 3000 videos available on the Gresham website - details

IDEAS FOR SPECIFIC SUBJECTS

BIOLOGY

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
  • 'Bottom Line' huge array of topics. 30 mins podcast with 2-3 people interviewed on a business theme - details
  • Applications of Maths useful to studying Economics at University – click here
  • Stand Up Economist – click here
  • An Economist Walks into a bar – click here
  • Tropical Short Videos from The Economist Publication – click here
  • Tropical Short Videos from The Economist Publication – click here
  • Panic: The Untold Story of The Financial Crisis – click here
  • The Bank that Bust The World – click here
  • Too much maths too little history – click here
  • Masters of Money: Keynes – click here
  • Masters of Money: Hayek – click here
  • Masters of Money: Marx – click here
  • Economics in Ten (podcasts) -click here

COMPUTER SCIENCE

  • Mysteries of the mind can be solved: A brain in a supercomputer. Henry Markram - click here
  • Big Data: Watch the TedTalk on the year open data went worldwide. Tim Berners-Lee - click here
  • Computer Science. University of Oxford Podcasts - Audio and Videos Lectures - click here

LAW

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - LAW
  • 'Law In Action' - lots of podcasts on law theme - details

MATHEMATICS

MILLENNIUM MATHEMATICS PROJECT

  • University of Cambridge provide this helpful site with ideas to explore mathematics in greater depth - details

MATHEMATICS FOR NATURAL SCIENCES WORKBOOK (UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE)

  •   Pdf document to download full of maths problems - provided by Faculty of Mathematics - details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - MATHEMATICS

  •  'More or less; behind the statistics - themed podcasts which debunks statistics in the news by exploring the evidence - details

PSYCHOLOGY

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - PSYCHOLOGY
  • 'All In The Mind' - huge array of podcasts for those interested in psychology - details

POLITICS

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - POLITICS
  •  'Political thinking with Nick Robinson' - political journalist, Nick Robinson, explores various themes  - details
RADIO 4 PODCASTS - POLITICS
  • 'Yesterday in Parliament' - kind of obvious really but great for politics students to keep up-to-date - details

PHILOSOPHY

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - PHILOSOPHY
  • 'Moral Maze' - Accessible discussion about morality. Might be some good ideas for EPQ perhaps - details
RADIO 4 PODCASTS - PHILOSOPHY
  • 'The Public Philosopher' - Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy - details

SOCIOLOGY

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - SOCIOLOGY
  • 'Thinking Allowed' - Professor of Sociology addresses various themes and new sociological research - details

SCIENCE

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - SCIENCE
  • 'Life Scientific' - Accessible interviews of scientists on current themes and new research - details
RADIO 4 PODCASTS - SCIENCE
  • 'Putting Science to Work' - scientists work out how science can best be put to work to solve a pressing problem facing society - details
RADIO 4 PODCASTS - NATURAL SCIENCES
  • 'Inside Science' - obvious theme - great for science students. Might be some good ideas for EPQ perhaps - details

HISTORY

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - HISTORY
  • 'The Long View' - stories from the past are compared with current events. - details

GEOGRAPHY

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - GEOGRAPHY
  • 'Costing the Earth' - fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet - details

COMPUTING

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY
  • 'Computing Britain' - 75 years of UK computing history in developing the technologies we rely on today - details

ART

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - ART (includes painters and playwrights)
  • 'Only artists' - two artists talk about their creative work - the conversation is free-flowing. Choose the pair talking - details

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