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Josh sets sights on Formula 1 after Oxford offer

Josh Ampomah is one of four students from our class of 2021 to have received offers from Oxford or Cambridge, out of a record 11 students who were offered interviews.

He is studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and has to secure an A* in Maths, Further Maths or Physics, as well as other A grades, to secure his place at Keble College, Oxford studying engineering.

As the only person from Springwood applying for engineering at Oxford, Josh said he felt like a bit of a pioneer, but he hopes he can lead the way for others to follow.

“I don’t know anyone who’s been to Oxford or Cambridge to do engineering, so somebody has to be the first,” he said.  “It’s nice to think that there might be people the year below looking up at what I’m doing, thinking they can do it too.”

As for his choice of college, he explained: “I had planned to go to Oxford and take a look last April, and of course that couldn’t happen.

"But I did my research, and Keble is very close to the engineering department and has the most engineering students of any college, so it seemed like the place for me."

Paying credit to staff at Springwood, Josh added: “School gave us a practice interview, which was really helpful, and also set me up for an external one, with some people at Norfolk County Council.

“When it came to writing my personal statement, I put in things like how I played hockey for the local team, but I was advised not to use up too much space on things that weren’t to do with the course, and as it turned out, in my interview, almost all the questions were academic, so that was the right thing to do.”

As for his long-term hopes and ambitions, Josh continued: “Long-term I’m not really sure what I want to do yet, but one of the things that attracted me to engineering at Oxford is that you don’t specialise until the third year of your course.

“Maybe working in something to do with cars or Formula 1 appeals - that’s something I’d love to get involved in and lots of the teams are based around Oxford.”