Year 12 students from Haringey recently took part in LMH’s inaugural Supercurricular Insight event at Bruce Castle Museum. The day focused on working with students to explore supercurricular activities and concepts, learn about university, and engage with academically challenging content to further their critical thinking skills.
To deliver the event on 24th March, LMH Access and Outreach Officers Vicky Rolley and Emily Jones travelled to Bruce Castle Museum to meet up with 45 selected students from four schools in Haringey, which is one of the College’s linked regions. The aim of the day was to focus firmly on understanding and developing supercurricular activities - academic interests pursued beyond the school curriculum - which play a central role in university applications and decision-making. For many sixth formers, these activities form a significant part of the personal statement they write when applying to university. Reading beyond the A Level syllabus not only deepens subject understanding, but also demonstrates genuine intellectual curiosity and passion.
This event brought together a variety of free supercurricular sessions led by LMH academics in Classics and Philosophy, alongside contributions from members of the Bruce Castle Museum and the LMH Outreach team, who ran sessions in Law, History, and Archive exploration. Students had the opportunity to explore subjects not available to them at school, while getting a taste of university-style learning, helping them to develop a starting point for their own supercurricular exploration.
On arrival, students were invited to look around the Museum, which houses a wide range of local history exhibits. They then attended a keynote lecture, ‘How does Social Change Happen?’, delivered by Dr Lyndsey Jenkins of Mansfield College. The lecture examined the role of Joyce Butler in driving both local and national social change, with particular focus on the central role she played in the development of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
Students spent the remainder of the day engaging with subject-specific taster sessions. Each session centred on a specific question or theme, ranging from an introduction to Greek Tragedy to exploring whether democracy can exist without elections. Grateful thanks go to Dr Ariadne Pagoni and Dr Nick Clanchy for their respective sessions and their support of the day.
The day concluded with an opportunity for students to speak with LMH Student Ambassadors about their experiences of supercurricular study, the university application process, and writing personal statements. Two of the LMH Student Ambassadors who joined us for the day are from the Haringey area, and it was wonderful to see them connecting with Year 12 students and answering their questions about university transitions, and their experience of moving from London to Oxford, a much smaller city.
This event would not have been possible without the expertise and support of colleagues involved in the Joyce Butler Project, and those at the Bruce Castle Museum in Haringey. The Joyce Butler Project is an AHRC-funded heritage project, led by Dr Lyndsey Jenkins of Mansfield College, which examines the life and work of councillor, alderman, and MP Joyce Butler.
