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"Oldham is one of the most economically-deprived towns in the UK and Oldham Sixth Form College (OSFC) was set up to increase social mobility and provide more opportunities for its young people. As part of encouraging and helping its students to progress onto the most competitive degree courses, we established the Aspiring Medics’ Programme (AMP), 5 years ago. This has been very successful in explaining the processes to students and helping them understand what they need to do. It has involved ex-students throughout the programme to inspire and support current Year 12s and 13s.

 

However, we have not been able to provide students with 1-2-1 mentoring until we began to work with Medics&Me. From the very first Zoom meeting with Megan in June 2021, it was apparent that our 2 projects shared the same goals and could be aligned to the benefit of OSFC’s students. Despite Medics&Me’s team all being Medicine undergraduates, with many demands on their time, the efficiency, reliability and professionalism of all involved has been remarkable and praiseworthy. When Medics&Me say they will do something, you know it will happen, and to the best of their abilities - be that the mentoring or the extra opportunities that they have provided.

 

The mentoring itself has been of an impressively high quality - as can be seen in the feedback from students on the next page. The fact that students made these comments within an hour or 2 of my asking them for their thoughts, is testament to how positive an experience they have had, as collecting students’ comments is notoriously difficult. 

 

We have been delighted with the support provided by Medics&Me and are looking forward to working with the team moving forwards and will, hopefully, find new and innovative ways to collaborate.

 

Thank you!"

 

Dr Richard Lee

Assistant Principal

OSFC

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"I have been so happy with all the help and info from medics&me and working with Antara has been great. For the first time since we started our 'MDV' programme in 2019, we had 1-2-1s with all students who were planning to apply for medicine and the resources that you sent were brilliant, especially about strategic applications. 

 

Through the 1-2-1s we also were able to chat with the students about the mentoring and I was overwhelmed with how positive and worthwhile they have found the experience. Your mentors are taking time out of their busy schedules to help our students and I am so thankful for that. A lot of our students will be the first in their families to apply to university, and also will come from backgrounds where they do not have access to advice or guidance on this whole process, or info about the healthcare careers they are interested in. The mentoring has helped bridge that gap and we are all very appreciative of help offered, it's making a massive difference to their confidence and motivation as well which is great. 

 

I am discussing with Antara about mock MMIs and am sending our Y12 cohort info about the meet the medic sessions which are great. Thanks for everything you've organised and set up so far, it's been brilliant!"

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Priyanka Nayar

Teacher of Chemistry 

Medics, Dentists & Vets (MDV) Co-Ordinator 

Xaverian College