All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
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Woodberry students settle in at Oxford for summer program
By FRED JORDAN
The students have settled into a routine of a "cooked breakfast" in college at 8:30 am and then gathering in a classroom to read the morning papers. At some point in the morning, they write a journal entry, watch part of the Simon Schama video series of the "History of Britain" and then have an hour discussion period. They get a bit of a break in between to dash off to the covered market for a snack, but then they eat lunch in college again at 1 pm. Afternoons begin with a two hour study time and then a four hour activity period.
The first week of the program is centered on Oxford itself. The students have been to the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford Natural History Museum, and have also taken hikes along both tributary rivers of the Thames which created the ancient "oxen ford;" the Isis to a thirteenth-century Norman church in Iffley and another to view the treacle well that inspired the opening chapter of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, located in a churchyard up the Cherwell (pronounced “Churl”) river. They have also had a walking tour of the city of Oxford with an extremely knowledgeable guide. Afterwards, they were back in college by 7 pm for another dinner of gourmet food, waited on by Brasenose students, all of whom have just graduated this week.
In the evenings, the boys watched the World Cup matches in the pubs either around town or in Brasenose and enjoyed getting to know some of the locals as well as foreign students from places like the Ukraine, Brazil, France, Italy and of course, the US. They got tickets for a performance of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew at Wadham College the other night, and everyone agreed it was the best Shakespeare they’d ever seen. Today they took a bus to Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill and the Marlborough family. This had particular relevance for the boys as they just that morning finished studying a biography of Churchill for the classroom component of the program.
The group is off to London tomorrow for a day trip, with plans for a walk through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace, a ride on the London Eye (a Ferris-wheel which offers spectacular views of the city), a walking tour of old City of Westminster, and a tour of the Globe theatre. They will then take some day trips this week to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Salisbury Cathedral, Winchester and the spectacular hill at Whitehorse/Uffington in vans that we have rented for the week.
The Woodberry at Oxford program has been in existence for almost a decade, and itallows students to explore a specific field for three weeks at one of the world's greatest universities. Topics vary according to the specialty of the faculty host, who comes from the English, history, religion, fine arts, mathematics, or science departments.
Students participating in previous Woodberry at Oxford programs have studied military history, baroque music, English literature, and British mathematicians and scientists, and have received a trimester elective credit in history, music, English, or mathematics for participation in these programs.
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The students have settled into a routine of a "cooked breakfast" in college at 8:30 am and then gathering in a classroom to read the morning papers. At some point in the morning, they write a journal entry, watch part of the Simon Schama video series of the "History of Britain" and then have an hour discussion period. They get a bit of a break in between to dash off to the covered market for a snack, but then they eat lunch in college again at 1 pm. Afternoons begin with a two hour study time and then a four hour activity period.
The first week of the program is centered on Oxford itself. The students have been to the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford Natural History Museum, and have also taken hikes along both tributary rivers of the Thames which created the ancient "oxen ford;" the Isis to a thirteenth-century Norman church in Iffley and another to view the treacle well that inspired the opening chapter of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, located in a churchyard up the Cherwell (pronounced “Churl”) river. They have also had a walking tour of the city of Oxford with an extremely knowledgeable guide. Afterwards, they were back in college by 7 pm for another dinner of gourmet food, waited on by Brasenose students, all of whom have just graduated this week.
In the evenings, the boys watched the World Cup matches in the pubs either around town or in Brasenose and enjoyed getting to know some of the locals as well as foreign students from places like the Ukraine, Brazil, France, Italy and of course, the US. They got tickets for a performance of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew at Wadham College the other night, and everyone agreed it was the best Shakespeare they’d ever seen. Today they took a bus to Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill and the Marlborough family. This had particular relevance for the boys as they just that morning finished studying a biography of Churchill for the classroom component of the program.
The group is off to London tomorrow for a day trip, with plans for a walk through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace, a ride on the London Eye (a Ferris-wheel which offers spectacular views of the city), a walking tour of old City of Westminster, and a tour of the Globe theatre. They will then take some day trips this week to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Salisbury Cathedral, Winchester and the spectacular hill at Whitehorse/Uffington in vans that we have rented for the week.
The Woodberry at Oxford program has been in existence for almost a decade, and itallows students to explore a specific field for three weeks at one of the world's greatest universities. Topics vary according to the specialty of the faculty host, who comes from the English, history, religion, fine arts, mathematics, or science departments.
Students participating in previous Woodberry at Oxford programs have studied military history, baroque music, English literature, and British mathematicians and scientists, and have received a trimester elective credit in history, music, English, or mathematics for participation in these programs.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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