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Sutton Trust Summer Schools 2015

Once again, the Faculty of Education hosted a group of Year 12 students from across the country as part of the University’s Sutton Trust Summer Schools, introducing them to the academic disciplines of education and encouraging them to apply for the undergraduate Education Tripos at Cambridge. The Sutton Trust offers free residential summer schools for Year 12 students from UK state schools, giving them a taste of student life and a chance to engage in intensive study with University experts. Many of the participants will be the first in their families to enter higher education, and the summer schools aim to equip them with the knowledge and insight to make high quality applications to top universities.

The Education strand of the summer schools ran from 18th – 21st August 2015 and was led by Jacqui Howard, former Faculty undergraduate and postgraduate student who until March 2015 was the Faculty’s Schools Liaison Coordinator. Assisting her was recent Faculty PGCE graduate Amy Norgrove and University CAMbassador Eireann Attridge who is entering her third year of the Education Tripos and is well known throughout the University for her commitment to leading outreach and access initiatives.

During the week the students had the opportunity to explore topics from across the undergraduate Tripos, taking in philosophy, sociology, history and psychology of education. Liz Duignan enthralled and challenged the students with her history session, getting the students thinking about childhood and adolescence. This session was so well received that one participant later declared “Liz for Prime Minister!”. A sociology session with Jacqui saw students picking to pieces Sue Palmer’s work on ‘toxic childhood’ and considering their own positions on a perceived crisis of childhood. Students got philosophical with Beatrice Balfour, looking at social mobility from theoretical, moral and ethical points of view, and Eve Tandoi gave them a flavour of the Children and Literature paper with a seminar including picture book analysis and contemplation on who children’s books are really written for. Rosanna Fennessy’s thought provoking psychology session allowed the students to consider the effectiveness of different methodologies and carry out a mini experiment of their own.

Throughout the week, students worked in pairs to research and produce projects on education and social mobility, spending time in the Faculty library to prepare, and presenting to the group on their final day. Supervisions for the projects were delivered by Cora Xu and Kevin Kester, along with Beatrice, Eve, Liz and Jacqui. The finished presentations were of a tremendously high standard and all students displayed impressive critical engagement with the literature.

The week also included an explanatory session on the Cambridge admissions process, with advice for writing personal statements and preparing for interviews. Students from all subject strands were resident in Queens’ and St Catharine’s Colleges for the week, taking part in a variety of evening activities including punting and a formal dinner.

The students were a pleasure to work with and we very much hope that they enjoyed the week as much as all of the staff did. Hopefully many of them will be inspired to consider Education when they apply to universities this autumn.

You can read more about the Sutton Trust here: http://www.suttontrust.com/students/uk-summer-schools/ and about Cambridge’s efforts to widen participation in HE here: http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/access/.