Jess studied Biology, Chemistry and Maths at A level with us, heading to the University of Bristol afterwards to complete her 5 year Dentistry degree. During her time in the Sixth form, she took part in the pilot EPQ project, which is now a very successful course here at The Gryphon School, with 70% of grades being an A or A* in 2017. This helped Jess a lot with her application to university and the research and referencing skills that she learnt were very useful during undergraduate study. Jess was so committed to getting the best grades that she could that she attended Mrs Huggins’ Biology A level lessons as well as her timetabled ones.

Jess completed a 4th year elective in a Children’s hospital in Cambodia for 3 weeks during her degree. As part of this, she took part in outreach projects, providing children with essential dental care in orphanages across the local region. This affected Jess hugely, so she returned to Cambodia with Dentaid, a dental charity providing mobile clinics to people who would not otherwise have access to a dentist once she had qualified.

Since Jess qualified as a dentist, she has completed her foundation dentistry year, a year in Maxillofacial surgery as a Senior House Officer, and the last year practising at Sturminster Dental Care. She is now completing a Post-Graduate Certificate in Restorative Dentistry.

In Jess’ free time, she is a keen runner, having completed a number of marathons, the first being the London Marathon where she raised a large amount of money for charity.

Jess looks back very fondly of her time in The Gryphon School Sixth form; it helped her to achieve her dream of becoming a dentist through the academic support and guidance as well as the extra curricular activities advertised through the bulletin, including Medlink, which is still running today. She is still in contact with a number of her friends from this time and her sister is currently in Year 12 with us.

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