Residential Summer School

The Programme

The WA team’s Residential Summer School is an annual event delivered at the University of Derby on various sites to learners in Year 10, this year at Kedleston Road, Britannia Mill, Markeaton Street and One Friar Gate Square. The event, delivered over three days, is designed to give students an insight into student life and includes overnight stays in Halls of Residence to allow them to fully immerse themselves in the experience.  

Activities included campus tours, academic tasters, talks from the Union of Students and sports activities. There were also social activities such as film nights and gaming evenings. 31 Year 10 students from four inner city Derby schools and three rural Derbyshire schools attended the summer school.  

Impact

The evaluations indicate an overwhelmingly positive result and shows that the summer school was effective in delivering an impactful student experience, as can be seen from their rating of the event.  

Table 1: Student ratings for the summer school overall

It is important that we evaluate not just their enjoyment of the summer school but also how it has impacted their thoughts about future progression.  

The below graph indicates how the learners felt they would fit in at university both before and after the summer school.  

The number of students who agreed or strongly agreed they felt like they would fit in at university

As can be seen, there is a positive uplift in the number of participants who either agreed or strongly agreed that they would fit in at university, from 48.2% before the summer school to 89.6% after. In addition, there was a significant reduction in those who strongly disagreed they would fit in at university, from 6.9% before to none afterwards. Those unsure made some positive change from 44.8% pre-event to 10.3% after.

The number of students who agreed or strongly agreed they were thinking about applying to university/HE in the future

Again, there has been a positive distance travelled because of the student's experiences on the summer school. 65.5% of the students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement before the event, this increased to 89.7% post event, an increase of 24pp. And so, even though numbers contemplating moving into HE were already high there was still a significant positive uplift post-event.

There remained 10.3% of students who were unsure about applying post event. Ideally, we would like to see all students agreeing with the statement, however it is important to note that none of the students disagreed with the statement post-event.

2023 contextual feedback – quotes

• "Very fun but also challenging. Very well organised. I took part in a lot of things I had never done or hadn't done in a long time. Loved meeting everyone, staff was super chill!" 
• "I enjoyed all of it, we were able to learn lots but it wasn’t just boring and listening the whole time as there were lots of activities incorporated that made it very exciting. I also think that all of the leaders were very nice which made it a much better experience" 
• "Gave me a new view on this type of educational path and how many different subjects are taught" 

2022 cohort long term impact

We also utilise longer term evaluative methods with the learners when they are in Year 11. We ask the learners the same questions to measure how impactful the summer school has been one year later; we are then able to compare answers and determine the long-term impact, as well as what improvements the team can make to the activity. Below are some responses from learners who attended the summer school in July 2022:  

• "It has had an impact in my school studies because I am inspired to work harder to get better grades and hopefully get into college one day"   
• "I believe that it has led me to want to go to university so I’m therefore trying a lot harder in my subjects to get a greater chance of going to university"   
• "It has changed my attitude in my future because I feel like it's a good way to connect with new people and have a chance in achieving something great and getting a qualification"  
• "If I hadn’t attended the summer school, I wouldn't really be motivated to try harder and do a better job at school"  

This feedback shows us the long-term impact that these activities have on learners in terms of informing their future progression, one of our key aims for our programmes.