Page 19 - Mansfield 2019/20

Mansfield Access goes digital
Access Report 2020
Sara Harb, Mansfield’s Kathleen Russ Access Officer, reflects
on the challenges faced by our Access and Outreach team this year, and the ways in which they have adapted and moved the College’s groundbreaking access work online.
This year started like most others, with our team making lots of trips to schools and colleges across the country, and hosting visits to Mansfield.
Early intervention is important for
raising aspirations, and with continued engagement throughout a young person’s school and college career, can greatly enhance confidence and attainment. A highlight of 2019/20 was the work we
did with primary school groups. In January 2020, we visited one of our link primary schools in Doncaster to talk to year 5s and 6s about university. We were extremely impressed with their knowledge and their enthusiasm for asking questions.
Towards the end of February, year 5-8s from the Croydon Children’s University came to visit Mansfield. The group met some of our amazing student helpers, and spent the afternoon thinking about big questions such as ‘is a robot a person?’
– which led to a very passionate debate. Our final visit before lockdown was from a group of year 4 and 5 pupils who were part of The Brilliant Club. They were fascinated by the architecture and by all the exciting things university has to offer, including the free lunch of chicken nuggets and chips – made especially for them by our very kind kitchen staff.
Helpers at the Virtual Open Day
‘ ...we adapted well and continued to support our link schools and colleges through these difficult circumstances.’
Ordinarily over the Easter vacation and Trinity term, we would have been visiting schools and colleges in our link regions, to talk about applying to and studying at Oxford. Naturally, we had to cancel all of our events in March. Although this initially posed a challenge, as our outreach work relies heavily on face-to-face interaction, we adapted well and continued to support our link schools and colleges through these difficult circumstances.
In April, we started a series of articles, linked by the theme of isolation,
entitled the Mansfield Isolation Conversation (www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/ isolationconversation). The aim of the series was to give students an introduction
to the subjects we teach at Mansfield,
and our wonderful tutors. We began with our Senior Tutor’s article on medieval anchoresses, and were soon adding
new voices to the conversation multiple times a week. In total we now have 17 fantastic articles ranging from Isolation and Revelation (Oriental Studies), socialising qubits in quantum computing (Materials Science), magnetic properties of isolated atoms (Physics) and Medieval Responses to Contagion (History), an extract from which can be found on page 21. The series has become a great online resource that we can point students to, encouraging them to explore their subject beyond the curriculum in a free and accessible way.
19