"Thank you for inviting me and my team at OUP to visit you at Nishkam School.  Oxford University Press is a publishing company that is part of Oxford University.  We have a mission to “further the University of Oxford’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.”  As a Publisher, we are probably most famous for producing the Oxford English Dictionary.  I work in our Education division, which publishes resources to help teachers and students.  You may have used our textbooks in class, or our digital Kerboodle resources.  We try to visit schools as often as we can, to make sure the resources we make match what teachers tell us they need in their classrooms.  I visited with my team of editors who work on our Geography, History, RE and Revision resources, and also our colleague in marketing. 

We were given a very warm welcome on arrival by Mr Deeks and Mrs Wilks.  It was a privilege to join in with collective worship - such a calm, reflective and inclusive start to our day.  We couldn’t help but notice how unique and beautiful the school building is.  We then split into two groups, and were given the opportunity to observe a number of Geography, History and RE classes being taught.  Thank you for letting us sit in on your classes!  We were very impressed with how attentive and engaged the students were,  For some of us this was a first school visit, and it has been a while since we were students ourselves.  One of my editors had never seen a visualiser before!

At lunchtime we met with some other members of the Nishkam School Trust.  Mrs Westwood talked to us about the special ethos of the Nishkam schools, and your virtues-led approach to education.  We also had a chance to chat a bit more with the teachers in your Humanities department who had so kindly opened their classroom doors to us.

Our Nishkam visit did not end at the school.  In the afternoon we were taken by a Trustee to visit the Nishkam Civic Centre, and shown an exhibition that explained the history of Handsworth as a centre for industry and innovation.  Finally, we were taken on a tour of Nishkam Gurudwara.  It was particularly interesting for our RE editors to visit this place of worship.  We enjoyed hot tea, curry and chips in the langar, and were taken to the top of the building to see the beautifully decorated interior of the dome. 

Thank you, again, for letting us visit Nishkam School, and also introducing us to your wider community.  It was an incredibly memorable day for my team.  We travelled back to Oxford clutching our copies of the Nishkam passport (generously gifted to us), feeling inspired by the special atmosphere of your school."

Minh Ha Duong

Interim Head of Humanities, Oxford University Press