All reports originally written by Aimhigher practitioners for the Peninsula Newsletter
Residential Summer Schools
Report by Mark White, South Devon Peninsula Programme Officer (PPO)
This year as part of the Aimhigher programme, Strand One organised 8 Summer schools. These are residential events that include an overnight stay in University Halls of Residence, sandwiched between 2 different taster days. The aim being to give the students more of an idea of what university life is like, by immersing them in the university experience. These shift the emphasis from a day trip to a university to a much more intensive experience for the students and staff.
We originally had a target of 10 Summer Schools but as the South Devon Peninsula Programme Officer (PPO) was only put in post in April, then had a disagreement with a lawn mower, was off work for 2 weeks and not allowed to drive for 6 weeks, it was decided to convert them to Taster Days instead as there wasn‟t really time to arrange the full summer schools.
The events involve up to 20 students and 3 staff in each Summer School. We have 8 student ambassadors with each event so there is a high student to ambassador ratio, this helps create a stronger relationship so students are more likely to ask more questions about university life. By the second day everyone knows each other better so even the most bashful student opens up to the ambassadors, asks questions and hopefully takes much more out of the experience.
This year we offered residentials at the University of Plymouth, Marjon and Exeter University involving 156 Students and 22 teaching staff from 8 schools, these were: Sport and Media at
Marjon,
Maths and Medieval Mystery at
Exeter University, and
iDAT and STOP at
Plymouth University.
The Students were kept very busy during the day taking part in the taster day activities run by the various university departments, and then we had arranged activities for them in the evenings, which is especially important, not just to show the social side of university but also as many might not have stayed away from their homes before.
When at Plymouth or Marjon we took them to Plymouth Music zone, a charity that allows everybody to experience music, whatever the ability (or lack of), age or confidence! In Exeter we took them ten pin bowling to get the competitive spirit flowing so they would be nice and calm before bed!
At the end of each day we ask the students to fill in a form of what they thought of the days including the likelihood of going to university, before the event and again after the event: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely was it that you would go University before you came on this visit / after this visit?" From this we get a feeling for how much of an impact the events have on the students. Looking at the results for this year, the 'Going to Uni' score before the event was 855 (an average score of 5) and the 'Going to Uni' score after the event was 1226 (an average score of 8). There is an average 3 point gain from 5 out of 10 before the residential to 8 out of 10 after.
"With more effective targeting and continuity of PPO/schools liaison, the schools have become experts in selecting the students who will benefit the most from our activities." (Luke Denner, PPO for Cornwall)
As Dan Brown the PPO for North Devon and North Somerset says: "The feedback from the event showed the largest attitudinal shift towards higher education that I've seen in the 6 years that I've worked on the Programme."
Amanda Polley the PPO for East Devon and West Somerset says: “Summer schools not only really increased awareness of HE but dispelled a lot of myths. The school students spent a lot of quality time with the ambassadors who spoke openly and honestly about their experiences of being in HE which you could see had a massive influence on the students themselves. We aim to make these days fun and without a doubt this was achieved.”
Below are a few of the comments received from the students at the end of the events:
West Exe Technology College, Year 8
- I really enjoyed the visit and I am definitely thinking about going to uni now.
- I thought this trip was amazing, the information the ambassadors gave me was very interesting and helpful.
- It was a very eye-opening trip.
St Luke's Science and Sports College, Year 9
- Had a lovely time at Plymouth Marjon University.
- Good friendly People.
- It was a fun experience. Thank you x
The Park Community School, Year 9
- I found it interesting and eye-opening. It's encouraged me to go to uni.
- Brill, Well interesting.
- The activities were fun and enjoyable.
- I thought that the visit was very interesting and has made me want to go to uni.
