Sixth form students aspiring for places at the country’s top universities have had a taste of what is to come with an ‘inspirational’ residential trip.
A group of students from The King's School successfully applied for placements at Cambridge University.
James Parkes, Eleanor Brandon and Michael Penstone were among some of the highest achieving year 12 students from Devon, Cornwall and Dorset state schools to go to find out about undergraduate life at Downing College.
During the trip they had the opportunity to participate in taster sessions, meet current students and lecturers, explore the city and find out about the admissions process.
Eleanor said the trip was insightful into life studying at a world-class university.
She said: "The college, staff and facilities were outstanding and there was a friendly environment throughout the week. The most invaluable events that took place included meeting with the director of studies and a talk on the current life-changing work in biochemistry, fuelling my motivation for the future."
James said: "The experience overall very much fuelled my ambition and gave me even more motivation to achieve going into the future."
Fellow student Naomi Gammon will head to Selwyn College in the summer after being chosen for the Year 12 Climate Change Curation Project. The A-level student was selected from 130 applicants to be part of the world-class museum team and research institute for a week.
Naomi said: "I am incredibly pleased to have been accepted onto the project and look forward to participating. It will be a great opportunity to challenge myself and gain experience of work in the field of climate change, which will be really exciting."
The students were encouraged by staff as part of the school's ASPIRE programme, which is aimed at sixth form students considering applying for top universities.
Headteacher Rob Gammon said: "These students have aspirations to study at world leading universities such as Cambridge and Oxford and these types of outreach opportunities from Oxbridge colleges will make a difference in equipping students from King's with the knowledge and experiences they need to submit a strong application."
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