Cotham School

Cotham School

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Name: Pedro

 

Secondary school: Cotham School

 

University destination+ subject studied: Imperial College, Biotechnology and Computer Science PhD

 

  1. What is your first memory starting your school?

Walking into the main hall for the first assembly.

 

  1. What is your best memory from your school?

Leading our team to victory in the regional Science Olympiad in Year 12. We’d worked for months on our project about renewable energy and winning felt incredible.

 

  1. What is one thing you would like to change about your school?

The rigid class scheduling system. It was sometimes difficult to take certain subject combinations because of timetable clashes, which limited some students’ choices.

 

  1. How did you prepare for your admission exam?

The school provided practice papers which were helpful but I didn’t have much help apart from that.

 

  1. How was the academic support?

It was ok, I could ask teachers questions but I was mostly left to my own devices.

 

  1. Is your school a religious school?

No, it was a secular grammar school.

 

  1. What was your favourite co-curricular achievement while at your school?

Starting the Coding Club in Year 11. We grew from 5 members to over 30, and even developed a simple app for the school’s sports teams to coordinate practice sessions.

 

  1. How much emphasis is placed on Oxbridge as a university destination?

There was no emphasis.

 

  1. Do you keep in touch with the school, now you have left?

Yes, I volunteered as a mentor for current sixth form students interested in STEM subjects.

 

  1. Did you ever have a detention at your school?

Once in Year 9 for forgetting my homework three times in one term. Had to spend an hour after school organizing the physics lab equipment.

 

  1. What are the pastoral support options?

Pastoral support options: Very comprehensive. We had:
• Form tutors who we saw monthly
• A dedicated school counsellor available three days per week

 

  1. Bonus: If school was an animal, what would it be and why?

Fish because they emphasised being resilient to changing tides of life.

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