“Lots of bikes and bright green grass”, “posh and sophisticated”, “creepy and haunted”. These were some of the first impressions of Cambridge from year-9 pupils from a Peterborough secondary school.

The 29 pupils from Walton Community School, who represent the top third of their year group in terms of academic potential, spent the day in Cambridge earlier this week, getting a glimpse of life at university.

The visit was organised by Rachel Spruce, Education Access Officer for St Catharine’s and Pembroke Colleges, which work with almost 100 schools in the Eastern Region and south London to help raise aspirations and encourage pupils to think about progression to higher education.

Rachel had visited the school a week earlier to meet the staff and pupils. During her visit she asked them to draw pictures of what a university student might look like.

“They drew figures with loads of expensive accessories and gave them fancy names like Rupert, Angus and Cornelius,” said Rachel, “The implication was that to go to university, you have to be rich and posh.”

Only two or three of the 29 pupils came from families with any record of going to university, and only three had visited Cambridge before. At Walton Community School 55 per cent of pupils achieve five or more A-Cs at GCSE.

On arrival, the pupils were divided into small groups and allocated student volunteers, who were bombarded with questions. “They wanted to know whether university students had to wear uniform, whether there were bells to wake you up and whether they were allowed to watch TV in their rooms,” said Rachel.

By lunchtime, following an introductory talk and a walk round town, the students were beginning to feel relaxed. Tucking into lunch in the college dining room, pupil Raja Khan said: “I’d like to come here to study maths. I’d be the first in my family to get a degree.”

He commented that two of the benefits of going to university were “so that people can improve themselves and learn how to understand each other better”.

The pupils were accompanied by three members of staff, including assistant head Anne Mason. She said: “Visits like this help to raise aspirations and get home the message that it’s worth working hard exams.”

A group of year-10 pupils from Walton will be visiting St Catharine’s College next month. The costs of the visits are covered by the publicly-funded Aim Higher programme and St Catharine’s/Pembroke, and are free for pupils.

Rachel Spruce, who studied French and Russian at Clare College, was appointed as Higher Education Access Officer at St Catharine’s and Pembroke a year ago. She says that she was inspired to get involved in widening participation by her own experience.

“Both my parents left school at 15 and my dad worked in a factory. At my sixth-form college the teachers were brilliant, encouraging me to apply to Cambridge, which had been my ultimate dream since I was about nine,” she said.

“I never thought I could be a teacher myself, but doing this job has made me determined to become one in the long-term. But first, I want to do a law conversion course and work to pay off my student loan.”

Before they got back on the coach for the return journey, the Walton students were asked again for their views of Cambridge. “Some of the buildings are old on the outside but on the inside the people are modern and friendly,” said one pupil.

“You would get really good teachers,” said another pupil. A third added: “And the food is really, really good. It’s even better than mum’s.”

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