The students from Years 9-11 attended Goldsmiths University in October 2019 for a launch event. Here they met their PhD tutor and were assigned to their project which was called, ‘Wellbeing in our Care Homes: What about staff?’

As part of the process students had six university-style tutorials where they examined academic journals and learnt how to reference. They also met with their university tutor as they each drafted and completed a 2,000-word dissertation examining what should be introduced and developed as an intervention.

The graduation event at Trinity College provided pupils with the opportunity to have a tour which included a visit to the Wren Library and a chance to recreate Sir Isaac Newton’s famous experiment to measure the speed of sound. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and their graduation experience; with four of the students being graded the university equivalent of a first and sixteen achieving a 2:1.

Holly Sherwood, Assistant Headteacher, said: “It is an amazing experience for the students. They have demonstrated great resilience and developed important study skills which will help them in their future studies. The opportunity to visit two very different universities has given the pupils a fantastic varied experience. All were able to make comparisons between the two universities and think about their future ambitions.”