President's Message 2026/2027

Dear Members, 

I hope you have all had a refreshing summer break, and are looking forward to the new term. I am excited to build on the society’s  support of students with a passion for surgery and to share with you the opportunities that lie ahead for the academic year 2026/2027. 

Our committee has already been working hard to design a calendar for members to look forward to! The Royal College of Surgeons Key Skills Course is shaping together, with the aim to happen on the 6th of February 2027, and we are continuing the practical suturing workshops, with reinforcement sessions and more advanced sessions added this term! These will run every Thursday from the 1st of October 2026.  Our online teaching series for the UKMLA, which is  designed to help you pass your exams, will be brought back. This will run on Monday’s starting on the 5th of October 2026. Our FY1 teaching series, which was initiated last year, will continue once again - designed to help people feel more comfortable about becoming FY1’s! 

As well as this, we have designed several new sessions for our members to look forward to!  As part of our online teaching series, we are bringing in an anatomy teaching series, which we will go through, complimenting the medicine teaching series. We also are looking to run an A-E simulation in November, which we are really looking forward to!

For the first time this year, we also have a dedicated research lead, who is currently setting up a calendar just for research. This will allow people who are interested in research to get involved, as research is such an important part of applying to core surgical training. Please come along and get involved. We are also running webinars on “women in surgery”, “getting into CST” and “surgical electives: a guide”, which will involve past alumni of Ogston! The “getting into CST” webinar will occur on the 28th of October 2026. If you are away on placement, this is a great way to keep in touch. 

On a final note, we are continuing our networks with WINSSA and BASOt, and have dedicated representatives for each. Please get in contact if you are interested in learning more, and we will be running events throughout the year. 

Memberships will remain at £5, and this will allow access to the online UKMLA teaching sessions, the suturing series, and our research and webinar events, as well as discounts on merchandise ( keep your eyes peeled, Sasha, the vice-president, and I are working on hoodies which are coming very soon!), and discounts on the RCSEd key skills course!

We will see you all at Fresher’s Fayre on the 17th and 18th August. Unfortunately, I’ll be away on elective, so I won’t be able to be there, but I’m looking forward to meeting you all when I get back! There will also be a Fresher’s event on the 22nd of August, which is open to all years, so please come along and get involved. 

Any questions, feel free to email us at ogstonmedia@gmail.com or message us on Instagram!A full calendar will be up in the next couple of weeks.

Best wishes, 

Katherine 

Ogston’s President 2026/2027