Wembley High Technology College |Bright Futures

Last month, Future Foundations ran a series of exciting Higher Education training programmes for over 100 students from Wembley High Technology College. The events were entitled, ‘Bright Futures’ and took place in Cambridge, making full use of the city’s links with academia, historic colleges and beautiful buildings.

For the majority of Wembley students this was their first ever taste of University and the experience was designed to raise aspirations, boost their self confidence and equip students with a toolkit of skills to lead themselves to success over the coming years and reach their full academic potential.

Both programmes were Course Directed by Owen and our Future Foundations coaches were Simone,  Amrit, Elizabeth and Laina, supported by Olivia as Operations Director.

Bright Futures opened on Monday 20^th June with a one day programme for 65 students based at Newnham College, an inspiring Higher Education venue set in beautiful grounds. The College was established in 1871 as one of the first women’s colleges and is still a women’s college, and the only undergraduate college with an all-women Fellowship.

Newnham is one of the 31 colleges of the University of Cambridge and during term time is home to 370 undergraduates, 285 graduate/postgraduate students, and about 70 academic staff. Over the years Newnham has attracted some of the world’s brightest and most talented young women and some of their prominent alumnae are household names, including Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson, broadcaster Clare Balding, the Olympic rower Anna Watkins, MP Diane Abbott, Professor Mary Beard, authors Sylvia Plath and and Germaine Greer and ground-breaking scientific stars such as Rosalind Franklin, whose work paved the way for the discovery of DNA, and Nobel prize-winner Dorothy Hodgkin.

Following the one day programme Future Foundations’ staff stayed on in Cambridge to greet the second group of Wembley High Technology College students. This time a group of 40 gifted and talented Year 8 students joined for a two day, one night residential from Tuesday 21^st– Wednesday 22^nd June. Training moved across town from Newnham to Fitzwilliam College as participants had the opportunity to experience student living, staying in halls of residence, eating meals in the college’s dining facilities and exploring Cambridge in more depth.

Fitzwilliam College began in 1869 as a non-collegiate institution, providing Cambridge education to undergraduates who were unable to afford membership of a college. Situated a short walk from the city centre, the College’s buildings span an impressive 200 years of architecture and have won numerous international design awards. Fitzwilliam is now home to around 450 undergraduates, 300 graduate students and 90 fellows

The college has a reputation for inclusion and academic excellence, with former pupils of state schools making up 67% of its first year UK undergraduates in 2014.

This is the fifth consecutive year Future Foundations has delivered Bright Futures training  for Key Stage 3 students at Wembley High Technology College and every year our staff observe transformational changes in participants self-confidence and ability to work together and step up to the challenges we present them with. The 2016 programme was no different with students reporting positive shifts in their attitudes towards leadership and goal setting skills with many saying that the experience has given them a level of self-belief they didn’t previously have and the inspiration to work hard to achieve their full potential.

New research carried out by UCAS has shown that a student’s university options could be determined from as young as ten, following warnings that the most disadvantaged young people still face too many challenges when applying for higher education.

Data from the largest UCAS student survey of its kind suggests the younger that students decide they’d like to go on to further education, the more likely they are to succeed in acquiring places at top UK universities.