Last Wednesday, 12th November the Year 10 Villiers Park Future Leaders at Ark Alexandra joined their peers from THA and TSLA for a university insight day to Canterbury Christ Church University. The organisers at Canterbury were very impressed by the students, commenting on their impeccable behaviour and high levels of intelligent and lively engagement during the presentations and the debate. The widening participation organiser said they were a fantastic group of young people. Even the kitchen staff at lunch time commented on how well behaved and polite they were. It made the Villiers Park team and the accompanying school-teachers very proud to be represented by this exceptional cohort of students. To see more about how their day went, please read the report below:
Villiers Park Trip for Year 10 Future Leaders to Canterbury Christ Church University
Last Wednesday, 12th November, we attended a University Insight Day at Canterbury Christ Church University with 32 Future Leaders from 3 of our partner schools. The day was a huge success, with great student engagement and an average rating of 8.64/10 from the Future Leaders in attendance. The programme included a talk on student life, a campus tour, and an ethical debate workshop.
After the coach journey, the students were able to stretch their legs on the campus tour, which included visiting the engineering workshop space and the mock hospital ward for medical students. Following lunch in the student canteen, the Future Leaders engaged in an ethical debate workshop, with questions ranging from ‘is a hotdog a sandwich?’ to ‘is the rise of AI a threat to jobs?’. In response to the hotdog debate, one Future Leader, Dylan from Ark William Parker, stated that ‘it does not conform to the legal definition of a sandwich’ and got a round of applause from the cohort after elaborating on his point. While discussing whether phones should be banned in school, the lecturer explained how it was not necessary in her day, as students would ask the reception if they could phone home in an emergency, to which Joshua from The Hastings Academy retorted: “It’s called progress!” We also heard a range of interesting opinions on AI, animal captivity in zoos and whether students should be able to decide their subject choices earlier.
Following the group debate, the students were tasked with considering questions from different perspectives – their own, and that of a scientist, a geographer, a historian, and an artist. For example, when asked ‘how to make the perfect tea’, the students answered that a scientist would use a Bunsen burner, a geographer would use spring water and fresh milk from a cow, a historian would consider old recipes and the roots of tea in China, and an artist would use milk froth to create a design on the top. For their next question, ‘should single use plastics be banned’, the Future Leaders demonstrated their knowledge on current topics and raised issues such as environmental sustainability, the threat to marine life including turtles, and the damage to human health from microplastics.
The young people were split into mixed groups from different schools for the workshop and 13 attendees reported having met new like-minded people. This was evident on our return journey, as the seating was mixed on the coach and the group were singing together all the way home. They created a cohort Whatsapp group, and one student was overheard asking another from a different school if they could be best friends forever, so I would say some new friendships were definitely formed! Also, 85% of attendees reported having learned more about what university life is like and 8 stated they are likely or very likely to attend Canterbury Christ Church, so overall it was a successful day that was both educational and social. Our hosts at the university commented on how great the student’s behaviour and engagement was throughout the day, calling them ‘a fantastic bunch of students’. We look forward to seeing the full group back together again for the Bath University residential. Many thanks to Musetta Ripamonti for organising and to Emma Cross for all the insider tips on student life at CCCU!
by Clara Smith, Villiers Park Progression Coach