Gower College Swansea has launched a new project called HE+ in collaboration with sixth form providers in the City and County of Swansea and the University of Cambridge.
Gower College Swansea has launched a new project called HE+ in collaboration with sixth form providers in the City and County of Swansea and the University of Cambridge.
The consortium partners are Bishop Gore Comprehensive School, Bishop Vaughan Catholic School, Gowerton Comprehensive School, Morriston Comprehensive School, Olchfa Comprehensive School, Ysgol Gyfun Bryn Tawe, and
Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr.
HE+, which aims to encourage and prepare talented academic students to compete for places at top universities, has been developed by the University of Cambridge and is being piloted in several areas of the UK.
It is part of the university’s commitment to seek out students from all backgrounds and encourage them aim high in their university ambitions.
In each HE+ consortium, a group of schools and colleges commit to working together, supported by one of the Cambridge colleges, to stretch and support their most academic pupils with a carefully-planned programme of activities.
HE+ will see Gower College Swansea link up with Churchill College, Cambridge, to act as a ‘hub’ for A and AS Level students from the college and schools in the City and County of Swansea. The students will take part in extension sessions that stretch their knowledge and skills beyond standard syllabi, as well as receiving help with applications to top universities such as those in the Russell and 1994 Groups.
Because the scheme involves young people from local schools as well as college students, Gower College Swansea will offer extra provision in the evenings, weekends and during holidays.
“There are several successful pilot schemes for the programme already running in England but we are the first to have the privilege of running it in Wales,” says the college’s Oxbridge tutor Felicity Padley.
“As the college in Cambridge which is responsible for outreach to South Wales, Churchill is delighted in have a role in the new Swansea HE+ consortium,” adds Jonathan Padley, Widening Participation Officer at Churchill College. “It will be an excellent opportunity to collaborate with colleagues at Gower College Swansea and the seven partner schools in the consortium to develop a really exciting programme of support for Swansea’s aspiring academics.”
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