Residential at Oriel College, Oxford
On Monday 23rd of March, five year 12 students, me included, were invited to Oriel College at Oxford University for two days. The purpose of the residential was to teach us about the application process for Oxford and to give an experience of life at Oxford.
Upon arrival at the college on the first day, we were taken to a hall in which we had an icebreaker activity. Following this our task for the two days was given to us which was to provide a presentation about the Golden Record, a record that contains what it represents to be human and has left the solar system aboard the voyager Space probe in 2014. We had to decide what we would put on the Golden Record and explain why we could choose these items on the second day.
Following our introduction to our task we had subject sessions in which I personally experienced Law, Politics and History. These illustrated what studying at Oxford would be like and were above all else fascinating to experience. Quite possibly the highlights of our trip however were the meals, we ate in the great hall and we all felt immersed in a Harry Potter style environment and saw the beauty of the college first hand. We also undertook a selfie scavenger hunt around Oxford in the evening before a quiz in which our team came third!
Our rooms for the night were surprisingly spacious and allowed us to gain more valuable experience into life at Oxford. The next day we made our presentations in groups and had fun debates about what should go into the record prior to presenting them to the rest of the groups, despite our group not winning the presentation we are still convinced our ideas were the best.
We then said our goodbyes and left the college immersed in life at Oxford and satisfied after a successful residential trip!
Ewan Billinge 12GP
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