During our students' time in the Sixth Form of Hymers College, they are given the opportunity to complete an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).  This qualification helps students develop and demonstrate their project management skills and provides opportunities for extended writing, both of which are highly valued for progression to higher education and employment.  Students can tailor their project to fit their individual needs, choices and aspirations with the agreement of their centre and the outcome of the project can be a design, performance, report, dissertation or artefact.

Two recent former students have completed an EPQ and the results of their projects are at Hymers College:

Kate Norman, OH 2017-24 - School Bench

At the start of the school term (September 2024), Old Hymerian and previous Head of School, Kate Norman, OH 2017-24 returned to Hymers College, to donate the stunning bench that she designed, constructed and painted for her Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) last academic year.

Kate's project was about how design impacts everyday life, with a particular focus on how creativity affects mental health and wellbeing.  She told us she found creating the bench had a particularly positive impact on her own wellbeing, as it provided some fun during her A Levels.

Kate would like to say a big thank you to the Hymers College Association (HCA) for kindly sponsoring all the materials she used to complete her project.

We think you'll agree her finished piece is beautiful, and you won't be surprised to learn she was awarded an A grade for her final project!

Kate has now headed off to the University of Nottingham where she'll be studying architecture.

Freyja Holmes, OH 2016-23 - Classroom Door

Last year (May 2023), Freyja Holmes, OH 2016-23 completed her EPQ, creating a stunning classroom door that embodied the spirit of Hymers College.  The classroom door that was painted can be seen at ML7 (formerly E5 pre 1994).

The door was made to incorporate various elements of the school to hopefully validate the hypothesis of my project title, ‘How can community voice inform and enrich street art and improve its reception and reputation in a locality?’. I decided to take an EPQ to further develop my time management skills as well as to broaden my knowledge on the subject of street art, with the aim of incorporating it into aspects of my architecture degree.

Freyja is now a second year student at Northumbria University where she is studying for a Batchelor of Arts.  She has had a fantastic start to university life, achieving Firsts throughout her first year, and is about to apply for a year of studying abroad.