Recent leavers shared their university experiences with Sixth Form students

It was wonderful to welcome a record number of alumnae volunteers to the 2026 University advice morning on 30 June. The 22 volunteers, who had left St Helen’s between 2021 and 2025, returned as advisors at the Q&A session held for the benefit of Lower Sixth students at St Helen’s. 

The students were able to question the alumnae about 15 different universities and hear about their experiences across 18 different degree courses. The courses represented included a range of science subjects (Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, Cyber Security, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Physics, Psychology) as well as arts and social science degrees (Classics, Economics, History, Law, Modern Languages, Politics, Philosophy, Theology). Also represented this year were creative, interdisciplinary courses such as Architecture and Product Design and Technology. The variety of university institutions represented was vast with volunteers coming from as far away as Durham, York and Lancaster in the north to Cambridge, Exeter, Bristol, Southampton and Brighton in the south, Birmingham and Loughborough in the Midlands as well as from Cardiff to the west. There were representatives from four different colleges of the University of London (King’s, UCL, Imperial and Queen Mary). 

The atrium was buzzing with questions from the 80 students, who rotated around the volunteers for 75 minutes asking numerous questions about university courses and life on campus. At the end of this informative session, the alumnae were able to catch up with one another over a school lunch, where the much-loved bao buns and cookies were on offer. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our alumnae volunteers for their time and energy, and hope that they enjoyed the return visit to school. 

Photos from the event can be viewed below.