10 years on: The Oxford learning centre making an impact

In 2014, IntoUniversity – a national charity that provides local learning centres to break cycles of disadvantage – opened the Oxford South East learning centre in Blackbird Leys in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Christ Church, Oxford.

Set up to support young people reach their potential, over the past decade the centre has supported more than 5,000 local students from the ages of 7 to 18 through school and centre-based educational workshops, homework sessions, mentoring and holiday activities.

Ten years after it first opened its doors, IntoUniversity staff, volunteers, students, teachers and parents share what the centre means to them.

Benjamin Ashton, Centre Manager

Benjamin joined the centre staff in February 2023 as an after-school education worker and earlier this year took on the job of Centre Manager. ‘During the school day we workshop with partner primary and secondary schools – either at the centre or in school. After school, we are back in the centre and students come to us.’

Activities for primary students focus on literacy, numeracy and oracy, albeit delivered in an alternative way to the school curriculum. ‘We follow a degree topic each term – something they won’t learn at primary school. Last term this was art history and we were all critics for a day. On another afternoon, we held an art auction.’

Benjamin and his team continue to provide academic support to secondary students but are also helping them to focus on the options available to them when they leave school. ‘Our job isn’t to push our students down any particular path but to present them with all the options. Our main message is: ‘Pursue your interests and your passions’.’

He is clear about the importance of having a physical space for the centre, that is separate from school but rooted in the local community. ‘Community spaces for young people are disappearing. We may have an academic focus, but we can still be that community space,’ Benjamin says. ‘And Blackbird Leys is an incredibly strong community. It’s vibrant, multi-cultural and peaceful. I feel lucky to be part of it.’

Beatrice, Year 12 student

Beatrice, aged 16, has been coming to the centre once a week for four years for help with revision and to complete school assignments. ‘The staff are kind and welcoming, and full of knowledge when I don't know what to do.

‘The work I do with IntoUniversity builds on my schoolwork, but staff here bring something else to the table by providing me with information on new and exciting things to do with my future plans.

‘I am quite an ambitious person but I would say that they push my ambition beyond its limits as they provide me with more information. I also like the events that are organised [in the school holidays] as they are quite fun!’

‘My advice to other young people thinking about attending the centre would be one hundred per cent come here – you won’t regret it’.

Ozioma, Year 12 student

Ozioma found out about IntoUniversity from a friend who came to the centre. Now in Year 12, she has been attending every week since Year 4. She uses her time at the centre to finish off her homework and do some revision. But it feels very different from school, Ozioma says.

‘I like how I get to see and talk to my friends and I like talking to the people who work at IntoUniversity,’ she says. ‘I get to meet new people here and have experiences about university and education that I might not get at school.’

‘Being part of IntoUniversity has made me care more about my education and made me want to go to university. Also, staff can always help with a question that I’m stuck on!’

Caroline Martin, Centre volunteer

‘There is such a positive vibe here,’ says Caroline Martin, who has been volunteering at the centre for the past four years. ‘If I turn up feeling a bit tired, the energy of the staff and children lifts my spirits.’

Caroline got involved when she responded to an ad on the Oxfordshire Volunteers website. She had recently retired from her part-time work in a school and was looking for some volunteering opportunities. She started supporting after school activities for children from partner primary schools and attends the centre every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

‘We follow a different topic each term; this term it’s Computer Science. But really, we are helping the children with their Maths and English. I usually sit with the kids who need extra help.’

Some children just find school overwhelming, Caroline says. ‘The education centre is not school. But it is somewhere people who might be struggling at school can get a little extra help. For many of them it also opens their horizons and that’s a great aim.’

Omotayo, Parent

Omotayo understands the opportunities education offers – and she believes the support of the centre staff in Blackbird Leys is enabling her children to take up opportunities that weren’t available to her.

All three of her children have benefited from the centre; her daughter and younger son still attend regularly.

‘It opened my eyes. If your kids are struggling, there is a place for them to go,’ she says. ‘IntoUniversity has helped my children with all aspects of life. It is teaching them team work and leadership skills. It has helped them focus and boosted their self-confidence.’

‘My youngest child is 10 and he went on an IntoUniversity trip to Southampton University during the summer. Now he wants to go to university too.’

Omotayo’s older son has secured a full scholarship to Marlborough College through IntoUniversity. It is an amazing opportunity for him, Omotayo recognises, and one he wants to share, thanks to the care and support he received from staff and volunteers at IntoUniversity in Blackbird Leys.

‘My children are ready to give back. My son knows he is on a bursary and he knows that he also wants to raise opportunities for others.’

Sarah Bennett, Primary school teacher

As an undergraduate at Sussex University, Sarah Bennett had been a student ambassador with IntoUniversity in Brighton. ‘I absolutely loved it,’ she says. ‘So, when I saw a job come up with IntoUniversity in Oxford, my hometown, I jumped at it.’

Sarah worked at the centre for three years before completing her teacher training qualifications, and now works as a Year 4 class teacher in one of the centre’s partner schools, Church Cowley St James.

‘From a teacher’s perspective, it’s great that IntoUniversity introduces our pupils to the idea of university as one of the many options open to them after school,’ Sarah says.

‘Our cost-of-living crisis means many families don’t often have these conversations with their children. But IntoUniversity feeds their curiosity early and staff explain briefly how the funding works so that it doesn’t seem too scary, and it opens parents’ eyes to the possibilities for their children.’

Find out more about IntoUniversity here.