About us
On this page:
About us
Mission Statement
Our Achievements
WAMS Support
Leeds WAMS (Widening Access to Medical School) Scheme was set up by five third year medical students from the University of Leeds in June 2002. Since then we have piloted the scheme in 13 schools in the Leeds area and paired up 26 mentors with year 12 students. The scheme is constantly growing and in September 2003 and 2004 we offered the scheme to many more schools in the West Yorkshire area. The WAMS committee itself has also gone from strength to strength since its formation in 2002! The photo below shows some of the members of our 2009/2010 committee, who are involved in various areas of WAMS to help make it a success in helping you!
If you'd like to contact us, click here, or if you'd like to make a comment about this site, then click here.
Mission statement
The Leeds WAMS (Widening Access to Medical School) Scheme is an organisation run by medical students at the University of Leeds. It is a service provided free of charge for sixth form students who go to state run schools which may have less experience of sending students to medical school. Our aim is to widen access to medicine and by doing this we hope to increase the number of successful applications of students from a wide range of backgrounds, thus encouraging a breed of doctors who have a greater understanding of the diverse culture in which we now live. This is in line with the aims outlined by the GMC, General Medical Council (opens in new window) in 'Tomorrow’s Doctors' which envisages a medical workforce that is truly representative of the community it serves.
We achieve our aims in three main ways:
1) Mentoring
We pair sixth form pupils from schools in West Yorkshire with medical students with the aim of providing factual information about life at university, help with the admissions process and boosting confidence.
2) Presentations
We coordinate presentations in schools in West Yorkshire, to year 9/10 and year 12 students. Our year 9/10 presentations are a mixture between an interactive science lesson involving stethoscopes, which tie in with the national curriculum as well as dispelling some of the myths about doctors and getting into medical school. We mainly give admissions, UCAS form, and interview technique advice to year 12 students. You can find some feedback we have received on our presentations here.
2) www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk
Because we only have the capacity to mentor and give presentations to students in West Yorkshire, we have developed this website in order to disseminate our knowledge to more people!
Logo designed by In-form Design (opens in new window)
WAMS Workshop 2006
Since the scheme was piloted back in 2002 it has gone from strength to strength. We have recently audited the scheme and have outlined some recommendations for the future.
Mentoring
Mentoring was the main part of the WAMS Scheme when we started back in 2002. We piloted mentoring via email in 13 schools and due to the enthusiasm amongst our fellow medical students in 2003 we targeted more schools. In 2004 we linked up with a charity called the Brightside Trust (link opens in new window). The Brightside Trust provides an e-platform called Bright Journals (link opens in new window), which is a safe area on the World Wide Web whereby we can monitor mentor-mentee contact. Following our achievements with the Brightside Trust, in 2005 we are breaking out of Leeds and are targeting 60 state-run schools in West Yorkshire. If you're reading this and go to a state-run school in West Yorkshire, speak to your head of sixth form!
Presentations
This started as a one off event for WAMS. Following the one off event, another presentation was planned and hey presto the presentations arm to the scheme has also grown considerably! We have links with the Education Liaison Service within the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (link opens in new window), who help us organise presentations to year nine and ten students. We also have strong links with the City and Regional Office (link opens in new window) at the University of Leeds (link opens in new window), who regularly contact us for specialist 'medicine' talks on admissions and interviews. We are also part of the new initiative called 'Speakers into Schools'.
Implementation pack
We have written an implementation pack for any other medical student wishing to set up a similar scheme. If you want an implementation pack send us an email via our comments page.
Conferences
In January 2008, the WAMS committee held the National Gateway Conference: Promoting Participation in Medicine (opens new window). The conference was one of the first of its kind and cought together Medical Students that run or would like to run schemes similar to WAMS, widening participation officers and clinical staff with a widening participation interest. The conference was funded by the Sutton Trust and provided various lectures and workshops related to widening participation activities.
In 2005, members from WAMS presented at the HE Mentornet (opens in new window) National Mentoring Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon. WAMS have also presented at the University of Leeds' Widening Participation Forum and various Brightside Trust networking events.
Our website
www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk started as a Student Selected Component (part of the medical curriculum), and has grown and grown! Any comments you have (good/bad/suggestions), please let us know via our comments page!
WAMS workshop 2006
WAMS Support
WAMS are kindly supported by the following organisations.
We, the committee and the students we help would like to thank each of the following:
The University of Leeds School of Medicine
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust
Testimonials
"From personal experience, I think the scheme is a brilliant idea." Medical student
"There is so much useful and well-explained information. I am so very glad I found your site!!!" A-level student
"Thanks for making such a quality website, really informative and down to earth." A-level student
"Thanks for all your advice and tips for medical school. It has really aroused my interest in studying medicine." A-level student
"It's really informative, one of the best, if not the best site for prospective medical students." Careers Guide
"An excellent website. Very informative. Well done." Albert Bugeja, Head of Legal Services, Rochford District Council
Page last updated by WAMS 22/02/09
We pair sixth form pupils from schools in West Yorkshire with medical students with the aim of providing factual information about life at university, help with the admissions process and boosting confidence.
We coordinate presentations in schools in West Yorkshire, to year 9/10 and year 12 students. Our year 9/10 presentations are a mixture between an interactive science lesson involving stethoscopes, which tie in with the national curriculum as well as dispelling some of the myths about doctors and getting into medical school. We mainly give admissions, UCAS form, and interview technique advice to year 12 students. You can find some feedback we have received on our presentations here.
Because we only have the capacity to mentor and give presentations to students in West Yorkshire, we have developed this website in order to disseminate our knowledge to more people!
Since the scheme was piloted back in 2002 it has gone from strength to strength. We have recently audited the scheme and have outlined some recommendations for the future.
Mentoring
Mentoring was the main part of the WAMS Scheme when we started back in 2002. We piloted mentoring via email in 13 schools and due to the enthusiasm amongst our fellow medical students in 2003 we targeted more schools. In 2004 we linked up with a charity called the Brightside Trust (link opens in new window). The Brightside Trust provides an e-platform called Bright Journals (link opens in new window), which is a safe area on the World Wide Web whereby we can monitor mentor-mentee contact. Following our achievements with the Brightside Trust, in 2005 we are breaking out of Leeds and are targeting 60 state-run schools in West Yorkshire. If you're reading this and go to a state-run school in West Yorkshire, speak to your head of sixth form!
Presentations
This started as a one off event for WAMS. Following the one off event, another presentation was planned and hey presto the presentations arm to the scheme has also grown considerably! We have links with the Education Liaison Service within the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (link opens in new window), who help us organise presentations to year nine and ten students. We also have strong links with the City and Regional Office (link opens in new window) at the University of Leeds (link opens in new window), who regularly contact us for specialist 'medicine' talks on admissions and interviews. We are also part of the new initiative called 'Speakers into Schools'.
Implementation pack
We have written an implementation pack for any other medical student wishing to set up a similar scheme. If you want an implementation pack send us an email via our comments page.
Conferences
In January 2008, the WAMS committee held the National Gateway Conference: Promoting Participation in Medicine (opens new window). The conference was one of the first of its kind and cought together Medical Students that run or would like to run schemes similar to WAMS, widening participation officers and clinical staff with a widening participation interest. The conference was funded by the Sutton Trust and provided various lectures and workshops related to widening participation activities.
In 2005, members from WAMS presented at the HE Mentornet (opens in new window) National Mentoring Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon. WAMS have also presented at the University of Leeds' Widening Participation Forum and various Brightside Trust networking events.
Our website
www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk started as a Student Selected Component (part of the medical curriculum), and has grown and grown! Any comments you have (good/bad/suggestions), please let us know via our comments page!
WAMS workshop 2006
WAMS Support
WAMS are kindly supported by the following organisations.
We, the committee and the students we help would like to thank each of the following:
The University of Leeds School of Medicine
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust
TestimonialsWAMS are kindly supported by the following organisations. 