Welcome to Reach

Since 2005, Reach Cambridge has given thousands of young people from all over the world the opportunity to prepare for the future in a university environment. Based in the historic city of Cambridge, our exciting and varied program comprises academic subject courses, group activities, lectures and excursions.

Our team is dedicated to offering our students the international experience of a lifetime within a safe, positive and inspiring community.

‘Every year, we receive wonderful testimonials and feedback from students, parents and teachers about how reliable, enthusiastic, motivated and friendly our staff are. Our team is 100% dedicated to helping young people find their place in the modern world and, in the words of our Latin motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra – “Reach for the stars.”’

Jon McGoh, Founder and Jenny Evans, Managing Director

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The Reach Team

Our experienced and dedicated year round staff team meticulously plans and prepares for our programs throughout the year. Meanwhile our program teams ensure the safe and efficient running of the programs. As well as ensuring the organisation runs smoothly, several members of the year-round team also travel across the globe to visit schools and talk to students and their families about our programs face-to-face. Let us know if you’d like to receive a visit!

Program Team

Senior Staff

Our experienced senior staff work together with our supervisors and teachers to ensure that our students have the opportunity to grow in confidence and enjoy their independence in a safe and supervised environment. They are onsite and on-call to oversee all aspects of the programme; their primary duty is to look after the health and safety of everyone involved, as well as to ensure every student feels welcome, and every program is enriching, inspiring and unforgettable.

Academic Staff

Our inspiring team of teachers works closely with our Director of Curriculum to provide the highest quality subject courses. Many of our teachers are working or studying at high-level academic institutions such as Cambridge, Oxford or London universities. They usually are Fellows, Professors, researchers or postgraduates and specialists in their field. Here at Reach, our teachers have significant autonomy in creating their courses so that they can utilise their expertise fully.

Supervisory Staff

Reach Cambridge supervisors live on-site alongside the students and are available 24 hours a day. Many of our supervisors are current undergraduates and are the students’ first point of contact to attend to their questions or concerns. Supervisors run an amazing schedule of daily activities and take part in weekend excursions with the whole community of students. They also look after a dedicated small group of students who live in the accommodation with them.

A look inside – Our Academic Courses

Accreditation

Reach Cambridge is proudly accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC) for Independent Further and Higher Education as a Short Course Provider. This is an extract from our most recent interim report –

“The senior leadership team is cohesive, collaborative and responsive. Teaching and learning are of a high quality, using highly qualified, experienced and engaging teachers. Programmes are well-designed to offer participants a well-rounded mix of academic and personal development opportunities. Programmes are designed to enable participants to benefit from the wider learning and development that arises from mixing with participants across a wide range of ages and cultures.”

Education experts from the BAC inspectorate assessed the institution against our standards during a formal inspection visit. The Inspection team wrote a report for the independent Accreditation Committee who subsequently awarded accreditation, which is valid for four years. The inspection report is available in the Directory and Inspection Reports section on the BAC website, where you can read more about the BAC.

Cambridge

Cambridge is a prestigious centre of academia and a beautiful place to live and study. The world-famous University of Cambridge is over 800 years old, and has been home to some of the most respected authors, scientists, thinkers, and even royalty. The city boasts some of the country’s finest architecture, art galleries and museums, as well as a vibrant theatre scene. Running through it is the River Cam: colleges glimpsed from the banks of the Backs, students punting along the water, and rowers practicing at high speed, are all part of the Cambridge experience.

A Brief History of Cambridge

Before the University

The Romans were first to build a town in Cambridge, although archaeologists have found evidence of habitation as far back as 1500BC. It was a convenient crossing point for the River Granta now known as the River Cam. Throughout Anglo-Saxon and Norman times, settlements tended to centre on what is now known as Castle Hill‚ for its fortification potential. William the Conqueror was the first to build a castle on the hill and his son, Henry 1st, gave the town its first charter. The oldest structure in Cambridge, St Bene’t’s Church, dates from the 11th Century.

The University

It was in 1209 that scholars, taking refuge from hostile townsmen in Oxford, settled in Cambridge. Students soon flocked to Cambridge, although in its early years, these were largely clerks or clergymen in holy orders of some sort. It was not until 1284 that the first Cambridge College (of which there are now 31), Peterhouse, was founded. Colleges sprang up in the centuries to follow‚ the result of benefactions from donors including King Henry VIII. The most famous structure in Cambridge – King’s College Chapel – was built by a succession of Kings, starting with Henry VI in 1446 and finishing with Henry VIII in 1515. Cambridge is the top-ranked University in the UK and has produced 118 Nobel laureates and 15 British Prime Ministers.

Famous Scholars

In 1627, a clergyman by the name of John Harvard entered Cambridge, before emigrating to America in 1638 and founding Harvard University. Numerous other influential scholars have passed through Cambridge: Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron and Lord Tennyson, several signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, F.R. Leavis, John Maynard Keynes, Crick & Watson, Sylvia Plath, Frederick Sanger, Ted Hughes and Stephen Hawking to name but a few!

All Reach Cambridge students have the opportunity to live and study in this inspiring environment, walking in the footsteps of great scholars who have changed the way we see the world.