This is an exciting but also potentially quite daunting time for year 12 students who are preoccupied not only with embarking on their year 13 courses for A level, but also making their future plans. As part of this work, we took 70 students to the University of Birmingham Open Day on Friday 21 June. Characteristic of this year group, the students had carefully planned their itineraries with talks and tours to ensure that they could gain an insight into subjects and courses as well as student life on campus. The glorious summer sunshine made the spacious green campus especially attractive, with deck chairs and a jazz band playing in the afternoon.

On Thursday 27 June, we took a smaller group to the University of Oxford Open Day. Again, they had made detailed plans to visit departments, admissions talks and colleges to find out as much as they could. The students walked the length and breadth of the city to pack in as many visits as they could and the minibus on the way back to school was animated with discussion.