MedSoc collaboration with local state schools
Although The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls is the only school listed above, this collaboration includes a much wider group of Ealing Schools who are keen to provide opportuntities to all our students and share best practice. These schools include Cardinal Wiseman, Dormers Wells High School, Elthorne, Featherstone, The Green School and Twyford Church of England High School.
MedSoc is a society at NHEHS which exists to promote discussion of topics of interest in the medical sciences. It provides a forum for students from Years 10-13 who are contemplating applying for courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Sciences and related subjects to share knowledge and best practice and support their applications.
We invite students and staff from local schools to lectures given by practising doctors, dentists and university students. We also provide interview practice at NHEHS to both our students and those from local secondary schools. These are held in a multiple mini interview format which enables many more students to participate. About 8 interviews occur concurrently and the interviewers have included top consultants, GPs, junior doctors, dentists, medical and dental students and Year 12 drama students (for a role play).
Aims
The aim of the partnership is to support all of our students who are applying for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Sciences and related subjects.
There are numerous benefits to working together to support our students in this way:
• Making the most of the valuable time of senior professionals. Having a larger audience provides our guest speakers and interviewers with a greater incentive to give up their time and it provides a greater range of discussion following their talks.
• Students from all participating schools benefit from attending the lectures and from the discussion with their peers. It gives them an opportuntiy to meet other students applying to similar courses and universities from a wide range of schools.
• All students benefit hugely from the interview practice prior to possible university interviews.
Background
The partnership stems from the Ealing Independent State School Partnership (EISSP) established in 2006. The founding members were Twyford Church of England High School, NHEHS and Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College (Ealing and Southall sites). The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls were invited to join the following year.
The science forum, designed to help students applying for medicine and dentistry, was the first event to be set up. Students met several times a year to present on a scientific topic they had investigated followed by a discussion of the issues. It gave students a chance to discuss key topics in science and debate the ethics behind these issues in a supportive environment.
This partnership is still running today thanks to the relationships that have been forged between the science staff in the relevant schools and the value placed on the events by all involved.
We look to provide mutually beneficial opportunities that are relevant to our students. In the past, these have also include admissions test preparation workshops, subsidised places on preparation courses and staff in the partner schools supporting each other through discussions of best practice and sharing resources.
Pupil Involvement
In July 2018 we hosted a seminar for students considering medicine with 5 speakers: Piriyanga Kesaven (5th Year medical student at Imperial), Nihal Shah (oncologist consultant), John Keen (GP), Mike Brunner (A and E Consultant), and Pankaj Chandak (Transplantation Consultant and Researcher). This was orgnaised and run by one of our Year 12 students. In addition to our students, we were delighted to welcome students from the following schools:
Cardinal Wiseman (4)
Dormer Wells High School (6)
Ellen Wilkinson (11)
Elthorne (4)
Twyford (10)
At the end of November we held MMI practice interviews with 8 external interviewers and our Head of Science. In addition to our students, we were delighted to welcome students from
Cardinal Wiseman (3)
Ellen Wilkinson (5)
Elthorne (5)
Featherstone (3)
The Green School (1)
Frequency
The collaboration is ongoing and will continue to change and develop to best meet the needs of our partners.