After a great weekend in Norwich and Brighton, our students were excited to return to their classrooms and get stuck into their new academic courses! This also gave Reach staff and students a chance to extend a warm welcome to the new school groups from Indonesia, Singapore and China. In the morning, all of the students settled into their chosen subject classes: English Literature, Law, Mathematics, Physics, Biotechnology, English as a Second Language, Chemistry & Medical Sciences, Economics and Psychology. It was great to see them so animated about their chosen field of study; at lunch many were already eager to fill me in on the material they had covered.
After lunch, many of the classes had a chance to explore the beautiful historic surroundings of Cambridge. This took the form of two guided tours: one on land and one on water! For those who are unfamiliar with the Cambridge tradition of ‘punting’, a ‘punt’ is a flat-bottomed boat with square ends. The ‘punter’ stands on a flat platform at the back of the boat and propels the punt by pushing against the riverbed with a long pole (think of it as the English take on a Venetian Gondola). Our punting guides took us along the backs of some of the most famous Cambridge colleges- including St. John’s and King’s- and their intricate bridges, such as ‘The Bridge of Sighs’ and ‘The Mathematical Bridge’. No matter how long you spend in Cambridge, the stunning architecture never fails to inspire!
The day was rounded off by a Charities Committee session, where students continued preparations for our upcoming fundraising events in aid of SABRE Charitable Trust. This was appropriately followed by an evening lecture on Community Outreach and the Prison System, delivered by the first black female Prison Officer in the UK who used her experiences to launch charitable initiatives that support ex-offenders. followed by an evening lecture on the Prison System. The final activity of the evening was the latest instalment in our Squad Wars: a friendly (yet fiercely competitive!) interactive quiz that involved fishing for vegetables, making sandwiches blindfolded, guessing the supervisor from their baby picture, as well as more traditional rounds like name the song. This was a great opportunity for the students – those who have been here for over a week and those who have just arrived – to meet each other and make friends, and everyone seems to be getting along famously!
Written by Holly, School Rep & Head of Pastoral Care
