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AMENDED MEDIA RELEASE
Issued: June 14, 2019
Students at consortium schools offered Cambridge places
PICTURES: Pictures of the two students can be downloaded HERE
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Two students at Epping Forest District Sixth Form Consortium schools have been accepted to study at Cambridge University
Following successful interviews last December, Debden Park High School student Kai Melhuish has been offered a place to study History at Trinity College while Roding Valley High School student Igor Dasuzhau has been accepted to read Biological Natural Sciences at Churchill College.
The two students are following in the footsteps of Olivia Tinker who, in 2017 while a student at Roding Valley High School, was offered and took up a place at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
While many students would assume that the upcoming exams would be the most challenging part of the application process, both say the personal statement writing process as deceptively difficult.
Igor said the process of writing about himself was “rather unprecedented" however, with the workshops offered by the school and help from supportive staff who provided examples of Oxbridge personal statements, he said he was able to "create one of my own”.
Both students were supported by their schools, including a cross-Consortium mock interview evening at Debden Park ahead of their Cambridge interviews.
Kai said: “Whilst daunting and stressful at first, the process of refining my personal statement and preparing for my interview was an incredibly valuable experience.
“It helped grow my confidence tremendously and forced me to really challenge myself and my own beliefs and ideas, particularly with the questions asked in the interview."
The interview process at their respective colleges gave the boys a chance to show off their incredible depth of knowledge when they were quizzed on their subject and on comprehension tasks on topics as broad as Witchcraft in the 15th Century to microbiology.
Both students who are predicted to gain straight A* and A grades in this summer’s A-Level results are relishing the challenges that lie ahead.
Kai said: "I'm most excited for the academic environment that Cambridge offers; the intellectual freedom to study almost any period of history I want will allow me to expand my knowledge and challenge my ideas and beliefs, and I am excited for the opportunities and obstacles it will present."
Igor already has his sights set on a taking his studies further.
He said: “I want to use my time in Cambridge to study genetic engineering and later go into further research about its applications, specifically in the medical field as I believe it to be the most useful, and am fascinated by the morally unambiguous area of genetic research.”
Debden Park and Roding Valley are part of the consortium of schools that, along with Epping St Johns, share expertise and work together to offer a comprehensive programme of post-16 study.
Joe Simm, Director of Debden Park High School Sixth Form, said: “As a Sixth Form, we want to be able to be the stepping stone for our students to move onto great things in their future.
"Kai is just one of many students leaving us this summer to join some of the best universities and employers in the country. We are incredibly proud of him and the rest of his cohort as they go on to fantastic futures."
Anjuli Wheaton, Director of Roding Valley Sixth Form, said: "It has been a privilege to work with Igor over the last few months and he will go on to inspire others at Roding Valley High School, both due to the ambition he has shown and his passion for STEM subjects."
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