On the 5th  November 2013, a total of Fifty Year 7 students from Hawthornes Free School attended a one day visit to the University of Liverpool. The event was arranged so that the young people could see the University firsthand and learn more about student life, giving them the motivation to push themselves towards higher education.

The event involved a series of sessions designed by the Educational Opportunities Team and delivered by University of Liverpool Graduate and Student Advocates. Graduate and Student Advocates are all current university students, or have recently graduated, and so can speak from recent experience about their time in higher education and can act as role models to the visiting students.

Each of the sessions focused on a different aspect of personal development for the young people and had been designed to increase the students motivation towards education, expand their knowledge and vocabulary of University, develop an understanding of a ‘progression journey’ through education and increase their aspirations for the future.

The visits allowed the young people to ask questions about University, disproving myths about higher education and giving more information about their educational journey and their future options.

The sessions delivered on the visit days included:

Campus Tour

‘Science Is Cool’

Sample Lecture

Student Shopping Basket (Finance activity)

Student Societies Activity

Student Question and Answer Session

Student Quotes:

‘I enjoyed it’ ‘This was great’ ‘Great’

‘I enjoyed today’

‘The science was the best part’

‘I had lots of fun, I would like to come again’ ‘It was good to meet other people’

‘We had lots of fun’

‘The helpers were very kind’

‘I can’t wait until I come here’

‘It was good and I liked at the end when we did science’ ‘I liked it a lot and don’t want you to change it’

‘Alii can say, that this is great’

‘Very good, I had lots of fun and would like to come here again’ ‘It was an awesome day’

‘I enjoyed the science part the best’

‘It was good to meet other people that we didn’t know’ ‘Today was pretty good and I can’t wait to come here’