West Derby launch third year of Stephen Twigg’s Liverpool to Oxbridge Collaborative Project

West Derby saw the launch of the third year of Stephen Twigg’s Liverpool to Oxbridge Collaborative Project. The event brought 150 invited students and parents together to formally launch the 2017 programme.
A collaboration between the eight secondary schools in the West Derby constituency (West Derby, Holly Lodge, De La Salle, St John Bosco, Broughton Hall, Cardinal Heenan, Broadgreen and St Edward’s College), the collaborative is designed to encourage more students from the area to consider applying to Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Now in its third year, Year 10 and Year 12 students are nominated to the collaborative by their schools and are provided opportunities to visit both Oxford and Cambridge, alongside aspiration-raising events, mock interviews and assistance in writing personal statements and other assistance.
The launch, hosted this year by West Derby School, heard from Liverpudlian Oxbridge alumni Leon Tootle and Rachel Cain about their own experiences in applying to and studying at Oxford University, and also Jack Clarke, offered a place at Cambridge University after completing the collaborative’s programme last year.
“I was absolutely delighted”, said Stephen Twigg MP. “It was wonderful to see so many young people come to our launch event, many with parents or other family members.
“I started this project because of my own experience as a 17-year-old. One of my teachers at my comprehensive school encouraged me to consider applying to Oxford. I may not have done it without that encouragement. I know we have terrifically bright young people in West Derby, and if we give them the same encouragement I was given, who knows what they can achieve?”