A huge thank you to all schools involved in any way in such events!"
—Dr Jonathan Padley
The Roadshow shared views and experience on how best to encourage Welsh students to aim high in their university choices. Churchill College's Widening Participation Officer Dr Jonathan Padley reports on his recent follow-up visit to South Wales:
“Further to this July’s Teachers’ Roadshow for Wales events in Carmarthenshire and Cardiff, I’ve been fortunate to develop excellent new contacts at lots of local schools.
“In September, two of these schools - Tasker Milward in Pembrokeshire and Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan – were kind enough to host days for me to speak with both their students, and students from other schools in their respective counties: a total of seven schools in Pembrokeshire and eight schools in the Vale.
“Across these two days, I was able to speak about the University of Cambridge to approximately 700 Year 10 through 13 pupils, as well as a goodly number of teachers, parents, and guardians.
“This collaborative work between schools was brilliantly efficient and is a model that I hope we’ll be able to develop locally in the future.
“The fact that lots of schools are willing to gather like this in areas that are relatively distant from Cambridge means that we can envisage more visits to, and a developing programme of provision in, those areas, moving from introducing Cambridge through to discussions about applications and leading on to subject-specific activities.
“There’s a similar event planned at Builth Wells High School later this month and I’m looking forward to seeing how that shapes up!
“A huge thank you to all schools involved in any way in such events!”
Teachers and students in South Wales are welcome to contact Jonathan to find out more.