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South West Regional Summer School
Year 11 Regional Summer School: Sunday 12 August – Friday 17th August 2007
33 students from across the South West of England arrived at Bournemouth University on a sunny Sunday afternoon in August to embark upon a week long residential Summer School.
The Summer School was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and Aimhigher. Students were selected using ESF criteria with only 13% coming from backgrounds where parents/carers had any experience of higher education.
Many were apprehensive as they had travelled long distances and didn’t know anybody! However, after settling into their houses and playing a game of rounders, new friendships blossomed. These were further encouraged by the quiz later that evening. Students were able to obtain a short insight into university life and how to balance their study time along with social activities.
The theme this year was Creative Industries and each student experienced a ‘taste’ of Product Design, Computer Animation and Media during the first 3 days and then they could choose which area they wanted to specialise in. The final day saw the results of all their hard work.
Family, friends and peers were able to view the fruits of their labours either in hard copy format or on the big screen! It was evident that there was lots of talent in the midst and we look forward to following the progress of these very talented students. Their anxieties had all been for nothing!
This year we were lucky enough to have a full-time photographer on board throughout the week. Students got quite used to being snapped every minute of the day and each student will be receiving a CD of a collection of photographs as a memento to share and remember.
Student feedback has been most encouraging with the most outstanding statistic being that after their Summer School experience students indicated a drop of 25% in highlighting that finances were no longer a major barrier to higher education. At the start of the Summer School students were most looking forward to meeting new friends and learning about university life.
Positive comments included ones such as: “Mentors were super because they joined in and had a real laugh with us”.
Contact:
Vivian Dedman
Summer Schools Project Leader
Bournemouth University
tel: 01202 961239
email: vdedman@bournemouth.ac.uk 
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