Jodie Godliman

BY EVIE KITT – PIPPA’S UNIVERSITY ADVISOR

While the history, beauty and prestige of Oxford and Cambridge draws applications from many thousands of students all over the world every year, it is the new facilities, pioneering research, sporting and exciting student-run opportunities that mean these two universities continue to top all the league tables. No wonder it’s a popular choice for our ambitious students!

The competition for places is more fierce than ever, which means that to get offers applicants have to be three things; exceptional, memorable and lucky. While the third is out of our hands, we try our best to help the students who wish to apply tick all the boxes they need to be classed as outstanding candidates. This is everything from reading material beyond their A Level studies, independent research and essay writing, to real-world experience of their chosen subject. All of this is combined into their personal statement, the 500 word essay that can open the first door to offers from Oxbridge.

Along with their grades, and a good performance in any entrance exams, this statement is key to being selected for interview. Pippa’s Guardians offers a University Advisory Service (UAS) to assist students with their applications. The majority of our UAS students get invited to Oxford and Cambridge every year – this year, every single one of our applicants was interviewed, thanks to the strength of their personal statements. We are very proud of this statistic!

At interview is when applicants must demonstrate their intellectual flexibility and problem-solving ability; responding to unseen texts, difficult maths or physics questions, or challenging open-ended questions like ‘what is conscience?’ We encourage our students to think aloud and to be brave when answering, because an interesting guess is always better than saying nothing! Knowing what to expect at interview ensures our students feel as calm and confident as they can when they meet their interviewers.

While we wish we could guarantee all of our amazing students places at these universities, we are immensely proud that such a high percentage of our students who reach interview are given offers, because we know how much hard work goes into applying there. These universities demand so much more from students and we feel very privileged to be able to provide them with all the support they need as they embark on one of the biggest challenges of their lives.

We would like to congratulate the following students who proudly received offers this year:

Oxford University:

Summer Wang (Ruthin School) Maths at St Hughes College

Petra Azazoglu* (Cheltenham College) Classics at St Anne’s College

Haru Ishizaka* (Kingswood School) Physics at St John’s College

Eustacia Feng (Shrewsbury School) English at Merton College

Anne-Sophie Lee (Wycombe Abbey) Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College

Cambridge University:

Connie Yuan* (Oundle School)  Engineering at Sidney Sussex College

Thomas Kan* (Oundle School)  Computer Science at Homerton College

Charity Lai (Uppingham School) Education, Policy and Development at Pembroke College

Saku Nagumo (Shrewsbury School) Maths at Trinity College

Rin Nakamura* (Christ’s Hospital School) Natural Science at Lucy Cavendish College

Rose Luo (Wycombe Abbey) Natural Science at Emmanuel College

*Students who used the UAS Service

In preparation for another busy year, we have added some new faces to our team.

Indy Wallace (pictured left)

Indy is the Pippa’s Guardians Area Manager for London and surrounding areas.
Indy’s children have all been educated in independent schools and she understands the system extremely well. Indy’s eldest son is studying medicine, her daughter is studying A Levels and her youngest son is at senior school. As a mother, she has the skills and knowledge to support and empathise with international parents.
Indy has had an international upbringing and successful career in business development, sales and account management in Publishing, Exhibitions and Energy efficiency. More recently Indy has been working with children in an independent school as an exam invigilator. She is very aware of the support children require to thrive and make the most of all the opportunities available to them at boarding school. She will be on hand to guide and care for your child throughout their time in the UK and be there for any challenges they may face.

Courtenay Forde-Johnston (pictured right)

Courtenay is the Pippa’s Guardians Area Manager for North Wales and lives close by to the schools that she works with. She is mother to 3 children who have all been educated at prestigious English boarding schools and understands the system extremely well.
Prior to joining Pippa’s Guardians, Courtenay worked in an administrative role in a boarding school where she built excellent relationships with parents and students, fully appreciating the importance of reassurance and good communication. Courtenay is very aware of the support children require to thrive and make the most of all the opportunities available to them at boarding school. She will be on hand to guide and care for your child throughout their time in the UK and be there for any challenges they may face.

Charlie Lloyd (pictured centre)

Charlie is the Pippa’s Guardians Area Manager for Bath and Bristol and lives in a village close to Bath with her husband and daughter who attends a local independent boarding school. Charlie has worked in a variety of people-focused roles and brings a breadth of experience to Pippa’s Guardians. With a background in recruitment, Charlie has worked more recently with families. This has been in the healthcare sector, and with a charity supporting families. She also has a wealth of experience from being a host family.

We are very happy to have them as part of the Pippa’s team. Having recently completed their inductions, they will be out meeting their schools, students and parents along side their Pippa’s colleagues.

Anne Weir is a host family for international students in the UK.

“Both of my children went to an international school in Germany, and my daughter was at a boarding school for a number of years. I remember how hard it was for international children, whose families lived far away, to travel home and back for exeat weekends and shorter holidays and it is even tougher now since the pandemic.

It was important to me that international students have a place to go, where they feel safe and able to relax.  I live alone in our family home with a beautiful garden in a quiet and rural location in Worcestershire and I felt I could offer these children a place where they could recharge their batteries and be themselves on their school break. I therefore contacted Pippa’s Guardians and became one of their host families for students studying at schools close to my home.

Pippa’s Guardians looks after hundreds of international students, aged 8 to 18, who study at UK boarding schools in the UK. As part of their guardianship service, they find students suitable families to stay with if they are unable to return home for their holidays. They usually try to match the students to families with similar interests, hobbies or personalities.

The aspect I enjoy most are getting to know the children and slowly building a trusting relationship with them. Some of the children can initially be quite reserved and on their best behaviour, but I find it incredibly rewarding when they feel more at home and their personalities start to shine through.

Most recently, I hosted a girl from Singapore, she was a delight to have stay here, she was polite and helpful and a real pleasure to have around. She worked hard on her school work and was very focussed on her revision and the practical work she did for her food technology course. She even cooked us a three course meal as part of her school work which was a great success.

I have been hosting since 2019 and don’t hesitate to recommend being a host for Pippa’s Guardians.”

If you are interested in becoming a host family for international students, please email hostfamilies@pippasguardians.co.uk or visit www.pippasguardians.co.uk

This year we have had more students than ever apply to study at Oxford and Cambridge – thirteen in total, all of whom were invited to interview in December, so we spent lots of time preparing for those. Practicing interview questions and encouraging students to showcase their intellectual flexibility meant that our students knew what to expect at interview and how to present the best versions of themselves. I’m incredibly proud of them all!

I have also been lucky to support some very creative students this year, hoping to study Architecture, Fine Art and Music. Assembling portfolios of their best work and helping them speak about their creative process in their personal statements has been very rewarding and I am sure they will all go on to flourish at university where they can express themselves.

It’s been an extra challenging year, with more applications than ever because of deferred entry from last year and the UK’s increasingly competitive university system, so helping students to write personal statements that really stand out and are memorable has been my priority. Thankfully our wonderful students are always ready to go the extra mile when it comes to reading and getting the experience they need! I feel very fortunate to have worked with such a fantastic group this year!

Evie Pike
University Advisor