Warwick Arts Centre's popular 'Aspiration Days' give local schools a creative, fun field-trip, and a chance to see what life at University is like.

Last year, gifts like yours helped our specially trained Education team to work with schools which historically have a low proportion of students going on to higher education.

Within 3 days of the invites being sent, the 10 slots available were fully booked, with a further 10 schools on a waiting list!

The school groups spent time in activities in two academic departments, before visiting a campus sculpture and applying their learning to the artwork they visited. They ended the day by creating their own version of Stefan Knapp’s ‘Needle of Knowledge’ sculpture, creating symbols to attach to a frame representing what they encountered during the day.

Feedback received from the schools showed that the children had really engaged, and they returned with a much better understanding of what a university is:

It was nice for the children to meet real academics and real students. The children were able to gain a greater understanding of what university life would entail. We then did follow-up work in school about what steps would need to be taken at secondary, so that they understand how hard they had to work to get there.

A teacher said:

One child in particular came back and announced that he wanted to study Physics and Engineering at Warwick. This, he announced in an assembly that the children wanted to lead after their day with you.

Thank you for giving these children a taster of the inspirational environment of higher education - the teachers are already asking about next year’s events!