On 10th November, Year 2 A-level students at Kings Bournemouth got the chance to complete the EPQ presentations that they had been working on for the last six months.
The Extended Project Qualification, or EPQ is it is more commonly referred to, is a qualification that is often taken alongside A-levels and is highly valued for progression to university. It carries UCAS tariff points equivalent to half an A-level and one of the two components of it is a presentation on a subject of each student’s choice.
The students used the morning to set up their presentations in both the tri hall and the upper canteen, and also ran through their presentations with one another to make sure that they were ready. When 2:30pm came, the students all stood in front of their presentations and waited for their fellow students and staff to come up to them and ask questions such as ‘what is your presentation about?’ or ‘where did you get the inspiration for this presentation?’ . The students presenting would then talk them through it in detail so that the other student or staff member understood the ins and outs of their project.
The presentations ran from 2:30pm all the way until 4:30pm so the students were very busy during this period. One of the EPQ students, Klajdi Neil, said:
‘I enjoyed presenting my project on trains so much I could have actually presented for longer!’.
For his project. he opted to go into depth about HS2, the new high speed railway currently being built between Birmingham and London; his project was very interesting and a lot of teachers including Director of Studies Andy Plain and Assistant Director of Studies Nicola Cranshaw were intrigued by his research into this.
The presentations were all very different and the students were given the freedom to decide what they wanted to base it on, which they liked as many of them decided to research and base their projects on what they want to do in the future. Nicola, who was in charge of the presentations day itself, was very impressed with everyone’s efforts and said she ‘thoroughly enjoyed listening to the students talk about their findings and glad everyone had a good time’.
After the students had finished presenting at 4:30pm they gathered together and went through how they thought they did; a lot of them were very proud that they had been courageous enough to present for such a long period of time and to so many faces.