This week saw the official launch of the St Peter’s College Schools Ambassador Project, Nicola Newton, our Head of the High Achievers Programme, and Biology tutor, Kim Edgell, visited St Peter’s, which is Carmel’s link college at Oxford where they had a chance to meet with academics.
As part of the project, teachers are paired with academics to develop an area of interest and Kim will work closely with Robert Grant-Downtown whose specialism is Botany. They will be working on a project on the effect of siRNA on our DNA.
The Schools Ambassador Project is designed to provide career personal development for teachers in their subjects by pairing them with an Oxford academic. The intention is also to raise the profile of St Peter’s and the University as a whole in those schools, and to encourage more suitably-qualified pupils to apply, not least students with underprivileged backgrounds.
The first group of Schools Ambassadors were chosen over the course of the summer, with teachers coming from schools in Liverpool, London, Bournemouth, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and St Helen’s. Speaking at the launch of the project, Mark Damazer CBE, Master of St Peter’s, said: ‘We have academics here full of excitement about the thought of teaching motivated school teachers who want to refresh or add to their knowledge.