Within hours of arriving in Cambridge, 17-year-old Aimee Dawson (pictured) could list by name more than ten people she calls her friends. They were some of the 50 students from around the country who took part in last week’s Further Education Summer School organised by Cambridge Admissions Office.

“It’s really exciting to be meeting people from loads of different places and with different accents and experiences. I live near Norwich but I’ve never been to Cambridge before – not even to go shopping. I’ve been looking forward to this for months,” said Aimee, who goes to East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Gorleston.

Run by Cambridge Admissions Office (CAO) and funded by the Sutton Trust, the FE Summer School is aimed at Year-12 students from colleges without a strong history of Cambridge applications and from backgrounds with little experience of higher education.

The programme embraced academic, cultural and social activities with plenty of chance to interact with current Cambridge students acting as assistants. The students were divided into two groups: those interested in science subjects and those interested in arts and humanities.

For many participants, scary myths about Cambridge were shattered in the first ten minutes of arriving. Jamie Lee, 17, who is doing his A levels at Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College in Manchester, said: “I thought Cambridge would be strict and old-fashioned. It’s much less formal than I thought.”

Jamie is interested in studying law at Cambridge. “I will be the first in my family to go to university and I want to go for the best. I like the way the Cambridge law course is structured. My teacher put me forward for the summer school and it’s really brilliant to be here,” he said.

Aimee too intends to apply to Cambridge, if her AS results live up to expectations. “I want to study English and I absolutely love poetry. At the moment I am reading Shelley outside school. It sounds funny but one of the best things is to be able to have conversations about English literature. That’s why I think I’d enjoy Cambridge so much,” she said.

Honor Ridout, FE Access Officer at CAO, said: “We hope the week gave students a realistic taste of what it would be like to study at Cambridge, so that they can make an informed choice when it comes to university applications.”

 

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