A group of 19 new Year 11 pupils, accompanied by Miss Moss and Mrs Stubbs, visited the Royal Agricultural University on Tuesday 13 June. The visit was organised by the university as part of their ‘Widening Participation’ programme to encourage local young people to consider university, to raise their awareness of courses and to appreciate more fully the importance of GCSEs. A group of pupils from Cirencester Kingshill School attended on the same day, which enabled pupils from both schools to mix with each other, share ideas within activities and to meet the university’s student ambassadors together.

The day was an excellent insight into university in general, right on our doorstep. The pupils worked in small groups and were involved in a number of activities, ranging from ‘ice breaker’ conversation tasks in order to experience the feelings of first year students on their first day at university, to a quiz which was designed to dispel some myths about university, as well as a research task which involved pupils looking closely at every single university prospectus for establishments in the UK. Pupils were treated to a guided tour of the university campus, which included seeing bedrooms and common rooms in the halls of residence, as well as the Student Union facilities.

After lunch pupils were able to take part in a Q&A session with the university students and produced creative presentations to show how much they had learnt about university life and the benefits of going to university. Some pupils made posters, others performed drama sketches and poems. They had certainly learnt a lot!

Deaglan McCardle from the RAU commented: "It was a pleasure having your students on site, I thought they were excellently behaved and participated really well in all the activities."

Back at school, pupils reflected on the benefits of the day and the things they had learnt. All in all it was a valuable day for all who took part and we hope to continue this link with the Royal Agricultural University for the future.
 

I am very grateful to the widening participation team at the RAU for opening their doors to our pupils who might not otherwise have considered our close neighbour, or indeed other universities, as a place of learning for themselves in the future. I was pleased to learn of our pupils’ engagement and ambition. They came back excited and invigorated about the possibilities and I hope they will be able to sustain this motivation through their GCSE studies.

 

Chiquita Henson, Headteacher