New partnership will help more Kirkby students get to top universities

The Access Project (TAP) and Magdalen College at Oxford have a major three-year partnership to help disadvantaged students at Ashfield School.

TAP runs a programme of personalised tuition and in-school support at Ashfield, helping young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds improve their grades and gain the skills they need to apply for top universities.

The partnership comes as the university watchdog, the Office for Students has called for the ‘access gap’ between wealthier and poorer students to be halved within five years.

Dr Ed Dodson, senior outreach and access officer for Magdalen College, said: “Ashfield is a perfect school for Magdalen College to work with because doing so will enable us to reach out to students who might otherwise lack opportunities to learn about highly selective universities such as Oxford.”

Linda Maguire, head of sixth form at Ashfield School, added: “The Access Project exposes our students to contacts and experiences that they may otherwise not have.”

Nathan Sansom, TAP chief executive believes the new partnership will make a profound difference to students at Ashfield.

He said: “It will be a great opportunity for the college and Ashfield School to provide opportunities for our students to experience a top university and see it as a realistic destination for them.”

For more information on TAP, click here.