The two cohorts in Cambridge continue to work hard with the Brilliant Club, starting to work on their final submissions. Thursday afternoon saw a trip to the Whipple Museum, a museum of the history of science, and fantastic talks by Dr Helen Bettinson, development director at Fitzwilliam College and Brandon Chao Chi Yen, a Queens’ College English LiteratuCmxmxSzXgAAp6Qrre PhD student.

The Year 10 cohort visited the Imperial Outreach Lab and the V and A Museum in London. The work at the Imperial Outreach Lab centred on biomechanics and human bone structures, as well as a mini introductory lecture, designed to give the students an idea of the sort of way in which you might be taught a STEM subject at University. Our students also went on a campus tour, an invaluable opportuniCmwrKJpWAAA5bHtty to look around, familiarise themselves with what University might be like, and to experience a day at a University, allowing them to better understand what the prospect of applying to and studying at a top University actually means, adjusting their ambitions and expectations accordingly to aim high. The Imperial Outreach Lab is becoming a staple of an APP residential, and we are delighted that Imperial College have become such a fantastic partner of ours in this way.

Year 9 continued their programme of extension lessons and opporCmwrKH2WYAEn1UGtunities to be exposed to slightly different angles on particular issues, with lessons on Classics, a sing-along Languages lesson, the Sociology of Sport and the Geography of human flows in the 21st century, a wide-rclassics lessonanging set of topics and hopefully something for everyone!

The evening speaker was Ceri Jones, Headmaster of Caterham School, a co-founder of the APP and a trustee of the AAF. Few people are better placed to summarise the messages we want to get across to our students, and to draw together the overall aim of the outsider speakers that come to visit the programme. Ceri spoke about his own experiences, what he took from them, and the advice that he would give our students in their pursuit of success. He emphasised the importance of hard work, giving yourself the chance to make choices, and encouraged our the students to strive to be in a position to make the most of the opportunities with which they are provided. The students were challenged to think of their role models, to have an idea of where they might want to be and how they might propose to get there, without becoming too fixated on one specific idea, and to understand the ways in which their peers on the programme, both within their cohort and those from their school in other cohorts, are an invaluable resource in terms of encouragement and support. CmwrKIfWEAAQHA8

Things will draw to a close over the next twenty four hours, but there is still much to be packed in – final blog coming tomorrow!

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