On Monday, with the sun shining balmily down into the quads of Balliol College, the students now making it their home began their lessons. Having gotten to know each other better over breakfast, everybody was excited to begin their classes with their new friends, and were raring to get to grips with their chosen subjects.

Some classes during the morning took place in Balliol itself; others were held in the equally grand setting of the Oxford Town Hall, giving the students being taught there the chance to see for themselves a sneak peak of Oxford on their walk over.

Morning lessons all went very well: a very enjoyable and productive time was had, and it looks like everybody is ready to hit the ground running. After lunch, the series of afternoon workshops began, in which students put into practice some of the ideas that they have been learning about in the morning: in the Film workshop, for instance, they began to consider the structure of scriptwriting, readying themselves to start preparation for their two-week-long project; in the Architecture workshop, students were uniting their hand and eye for the tasks ahead by drawing whatever they happened to have in their pockets.

With academic roots growing firmly into the ground, students were given free time to head out into Oxford and explore. Some gave themselves self-guided tours to the Natural History Museum; others gave themselves self-guided tours to McDonald’s— but all returned to Balliol happy and excited by the prospect of getting to know the city better.

The day was wrapped up by a quiz back in Balliol College. With rounds on geography, the history of Oxford, Harry Potter and more, every student had a chance to demonstrate some impressive knowledge. The winning team was ‘The Ravens’, and the winner of the ‘best team name’ category was the group called ‘Bally Y’all’, with both groups winning some academic and creative pride to carry with them to bed as curfew was announced.