Biomedical Outreach Programme

Over the last 3 years, Shrewsbury High School has been developing a Biomedical Society programme. This has involved an annual Shrewsbury High School Biomedical Conference, a series of lectures with a medical theme and a visit to Keele University, School of Medicine. Both the conference and lecture programme are open to pupils in Years 10 and above in all Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin schools. We are delighted with the response from local schools as we have delegates of all ages from a wide variety of maintained schools in Shropshire. Both the lecture programme and the conference are successful and we would like to continue and expand our programme for the next academic year and beyond. It is our intention that Shrewsbury High School becomes the Shropshire ‘hub’ for Keele University’s Medical Outreach Program. We would like this initiative to be a long term program and hence, sustainability is a key issue as we develop. There are three main elements to our programme.

1. A visit to Keele University School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy and School of Nursing.
2. The annual Biomedical Conference
3. A lecture series with Medicine and Health Care themes

Aims

Providing pupils in local state schools with expert advice, guidance and support as they prepare for a career in Medicine and other Health Care professions.
A high quality lecture series, a very full conference programme with expert advice and a successful and informative visit to Keele University.

Pupils from local state schools who have an interest in applying for medicine and health care courses.

Background

Shrewsbury High School identified a need for high quality preparation for Medicine in the local area. This wasn’t being provided in local schools and we felt that we could support potential applicants. The opportunity was identified by the Assistant Head. It has been established for 3 years.

Resources

Funding for the visit to Keele University (transport), the cost of marketing material, access to high quality experts from the fields of medicine and health care, funding for expenses for speakers, refreshments, staff costs.
The event uses the Shrewsbury High School facilities to host the lectures.
Approximately 5 members of the teaching staff and various members of the non-teaching staff. The amount of time they contribute varies hugely.
The school subsidies certain aspects of the initiative but we have also secured funding from external sponsorship for 3 years (we are currently in the 2nd year of this funding).

Impact

Firstly, we will closely monitor the numbers of students attending all aspects of the Shrewsbury High School Biomedical Program. We would expect there to be an increase in numbers of pupils from maintained schools in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin over the coming years. Although we were pleased with the numbers of pupils who attended our inaugural Biomedical Conference and Lecture Series, we aim to further increase the number of participants.
Secondly, we will monitor the number of pupils from our own school and maintained schools who eventually apply to study Medicine and other health related degrees at university and whether they are successful in the application. Hopefully, the numbers applying and the level of success will steadily improve, year on year. By tracking the success of all students, we will be able to measure the success of the scheme. We will work closely with Shropshire Youth Services in order to gather accurate information regarding the success of the pupils in the maintained schools.

Pupil Involvement

Approximately 1/3 of the participants (20-30) are from the independent school and 2/3 (40-60) are from state schools.
14-18 years of age.
Male and female.

Frequency

An annual conference and Keele University visit, with monthly lectures.
Ongoing