This July we welcomed 27 male students from 14 Coventry and Warwickshire schools for our first ever Gradu8 Year 8 Summer School, providing an opportunity to experience university life! Students took part in a variety of academic taster sessions, took part in a range of social activities. They met current university students and stayed overnight in Halls of Residence at the University of Warwick. The students, parents and carers to a Welcome Afternoon prior to the Summer School commencing, allowing everyone to learn about the Gradu8 programme, meet staff and also had the opportunity to take part in activities at the climbing wall at the new University of Warwick Sports Hub.

This year we had a packed timetable beginning with a fun afternoon of team building activities and a scavenger hunt to explore the University of Warwick campus. Students were able to take part in outdoor games activities before enjoying a barbeque and conquering ‘The Cube’, a series of team building challenges. On the second day, the students sampled a variety of new and exciting academic taster sessions, ranging from a ‘Would I lie to you?’ engineering session to exploring ideas of identity through politics to debating Mr B’s Brain through philosophy. Students continued developing their team work and communication skill through a sports session led by the WASPS Rugby community team and in the evening, students enjoyed a pizza night and were able to take part in activities at the Students Union. Day Three began with a food system challenge with Global Sustainable Development and Sustainable Futures with Liberal Arts, allowing students to put their newly developed skills of communication to the test whilst enjoying some new inspiring subjects affecting current issues in the news. The Gradu8 Year 8 Summer School concluded with a graduation celebrating the students fantastic achievements with their parents, carers, families and teachers.

Congratulations to the Gradu8 Class of 2019!

When students were asked what they would say to their friends about their experience they said:

‘It’s so good that I don’t want to go back to school’

‘I have not been to many universities…but I think that this is the best one. There is so, much to do’

When asked to describe their experience in three words, participants said:

‘Fun, exciting, challenging’

‘Fun, intellectually challenging’

‘Very Very Inspirational’

‘Best Thing Ever’

Parent/carers have commented:

“Before he didn’t want to come to uni and he didn’t know what he wanted to do. So, he got two long term things from it. One he knows that he wants to come to uni, and two he knows what he wants to do."

“I would just like to say a big thank you to you all for the opportunity you gave to [student] to come to your summer school. He was so looking forward to going and he absolutely had a fantastic time and took on board all he could. This experience has left him wanting to come back again.”

A teacher has commented:

"I think it is very powerful to actually be at a University…opening up horizons...it is opening up varieties and saying you can do these things."