We are always thrilled when Old Birkdalians come back to visit us. Last week, the Modern Languages department welcomed back former pupil Rafal Faraj, who is currently in his second year studying Law and Spanish at Oxford University.

He shared his passion for languages, the Oxford application process and his experience of studying Law to an audience of middle school and sixth form pupils. Emphasising the global and multilingual nature of many of the University’s students, he urged pupils to continue with a language. He explained that at University, A Level subjects (especially the third or fourth choice subject) were quite often immaterial whereas language skills remained.