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Aimhigher in the Arts (AHA) Summer Schools
Year 10 Summer School: Sunday 5th August – Saturday 11th August 2007
This year saw the successful completion of the third Performing Arts Summer School for the LIFE area.
40 Year 10 students from schools in
Bournemouth, Dorset, Poole and South Somerset
participated in a residential Summer School during August. The places were funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and Aimhigher and students were selected using ESF criteria. The majority of students had parents who had no experience of higher education.
Daily workshops were hosted at the Lighthouse theatre in Poole, where the students worked tirelessly with professional artists in Dance, Physical Theatre, Music and Stage Production.
Lee Hart was the Creative Producer who had the task of pulling the various elements of the programme together, Niki McCretton lead the Dance strand whilst Amit Lahav was responsible for the Physical Theatre workshops. We were once again joined by Sammy Hurden and Nick Flowers from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra who together guided the students in the Music strand. This year saw the addition of a fourth element for Stage Production/Management. This was lead by John Camble and students here were responsible for the technical side of the production.
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Not many of the students knew each other at the beginning of the week but after 6 days of working together to produce an outstanding piece of theatre strong friendships had been forged. The whole week seemed to rush by and each student was presented with a certificate and a CD of photographs as a record of many happy memories.
Each day after the workshops had finished the students were given talks either by the artists or by student mentors about pathways into Higher Education. After a meal back at Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, students then experienced various social activities ranging from a beach BBQ to a karaoke evening. The talent show proved very popular where the students were seen in a very different light!
The week culminated in an awesome production on the largest stage outside of London! Adrenalin ran high as the students were watched by family and friends. It was really astounding that such a high calibre piece of work was put together in such a short space of time.
Students were asked to complete pre and post questionnaires and feedback has been excellent. Data shows that the Summer School was very successful in making students feel more confident about higher education and the benefits of it whilst breaking down possible perceptions or barriers.
Mentors received lots of praise as well; “The mentors were all amazing”. Other comments were: “The Bournemouth University Summer School was fantastic. I enjoyed myself, I was able to make friends, build confidence and live a dream for one week, which I wish had lasted longer”, “In this week I have found my confidence has gone up so much. It has really helped me. I am lucky I got picked….”
Photographs from the performance can be viewed on: www.artisticvisions.org/mi/mi.htm 
Such an event would not have been possible with out the huge support from the many partners:
Bournemouth University, Activate, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Lighthouse, Aimhigher, ESF, Borough of Poole, Bournemouth Borough Council, BSO, Wave Arts Agency & DepARTure.
Contact:
Vivian Dedman
Summer Schools Project Leader
Bournemouth University
tel: 01202 961239
email: vdedman@bournemouth.ac.uk 
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