Year 11: Summer Expo 05
Sun 3rd July to Fri 8th July 2005
49 year 11 students attended the Summer Expo 05 Summer School at UCN.
Day 1
The week began with everyone arriving at the Students Union at 4pm, either being dropped off by friends and family or arriving on the Summer School coaches. Students on the Summer School had come from Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire as well as Northamptonshire. After the introductions and campus tours, we all had a BBQ to relax and get to know each other. The Gurus then took the flat teams to their new homes for the next five days and everyone spent the evening getting to know their new flat mates and making their flat team posters!
Day 2
Everyone was up bright and early ready for their first presentation at 9am by Tina on 'why are you here?' The students had to answer questions on higher education - and got lollies as prizes (which many of the Gurus tried to eat!). The rest of the day was spent in subject taster sessions trying out some of the subjects available in higher education. Students had tasters in Business Studies, Psychology, Performance Studies and Law.
In the Business session students had to work out a business plan designed around what they would do with the 50 million - yes 50 million - cotton reels they had inherited from their long lost uncle.
Psychology did a summary of what the subject Psychology was, how you studied Psychology and an overview of what you could do with a Psychology degree.
Law did a similar overview, with a focus on studying Law in Higher Education, and also introduced what students would be doing the rest of the week if they chose to do Law for their project work.
In the Performance Studies session, students and Gurus had to do role-play as well as confidence building and team work activities. Once all the students had experienced every subject they had to choose which topic they wanted to study for the rest of the week (resulting in a group presentation at the end of the Summer School). The busy day ended with a talk on Student Finance and a budgeting activity called 'Play Your Cash Right'. Once they had finished, the students were given some 'chill-out' time after their hard work!
During the evening the students could relax for a while with a DVD.to prepare them for two hours of Circus Skills with Splats Circus Company! We all had a go and activities included juggling, balancing feathers, stilts and throwing the Diablo. The Diary Room was also open, as it was every evening, for students and Gurus to record their comments onto camera! Everyone then watched Big Brother in the Union (as a little treat!) - and then it was back to the flats and to bed!
Day 3
Much of day 3 was spent in project work, ending with a library research session. The Psychology students had to research the hypothesis: Is there a correlation to male physical attractiveness and the size of your third finger?. Law students were researching terrorism, the Performance students were working on a piece of drama to be shown on the last day and the Business Studies group were looking at the areas of Marketing and branding of certain products.
After dinner we all let off some steam at Zap Zone! We got into teams and had to run around in the dark trying to shoot each other! What a great way to get to know your new friends! The Gurus in the first team were especially pleased as they won all of their games (not that they were very competitive at all.)!
Day 4
Wednesday was our fun day out! We all went to an outdoor activity centre in Leicestershire to get to know each other a little better, and to build up confidence in new activities. Everyone took part in at least one activity which included rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing, archery, bell-boating and quad biking. The students doing the canoeing and bell-boating in the afternoon session got very wet - and it all ended with a group of students being so wet that they all started jumping into the river soaking each other! The Gurus thought this was a good time to join in student activities!!! It was a good job that the Leaders had brought a large supply of bin bags for wet clothes and to sit on in the coaches back to Northampton! Everyone had a great day out - and it was terrific to see people giving new activities a try - especially those who were scared of heights and then were cheered on as they abseiled for the first time!
When we got back to campus, we all had chill-out time to dry out. Before dinner (which was a treat - delivery pizzas!) all flat teams had to prepare 5 questions each for the evening quiz, and also had a list of mind-puzzles to hand in to try and win prizes!
The evening was then spent with Quiz Master Tash and Challenge Master Tina quizzing and testing the students and Guru's knowledge! After a set of questions, one member of each team had to come up to do a challenge set by the Leaders. These included making balloon animals, balancing plastic spoons on their faces, charades and Big Brother challenges! Guru Chris marked all of the papers and the results were Guru Yaz and Guru Laura's joint flat teams winning the quiz - winning by just one point to Guru Pete's team!
Day 5
By Thursday, everyone was starting to feel a little tired and weary - especially from all the activity the day before!
All students had to do a day of project work and start working on their final presentations. After their project work, they all had some chill-out time and played team games such as rounders and basketball.
The flats then had to 'Get Creative' and make a Western themed prop for the end of Summer School Western party! The party was brilliant and a really fun way to spend the last evening. Many of the Gurus dressed up for the Western theme and the flat Western Props were brilliant! They included horses, wagons, cows and a western Transguff!! Plus many others too numerous to name! The students also had the opportunity to have a go on the Rodeo Bull - which caused a few laughs and embarrassment as they fell off! We also had the padded Sumo Suits (not sure how Western they were but a good laugh). Some of the lads got a bit carried away as four of them tried to 'fight' at the same time (which gave us all watching a good laugh as they kept bouncing off each other!). The Gurus all had fun with water pistols during the evening - squirting each other as much as the students!
The evening's other activities included line dancing and some serious dancing from everyone - including the giant conga at the end of the night! It was a brilliant night and a great ending to a fantastic week.
Day 6
The final day of Summer Expo 05! Most of the morning was spent doing last minute preparations for presentations. Some of the students met the local MP, Phil Hope, and had a chance to speak to him about what they had been up to and changes to higher education.
After lunch, all the students had to do group presentations of what they learnt during the week - and every student had to say at least one thing! The presentations were all excellent and also fun and exciting to watch. Many of the students were nervous but all did a brilliant job. The Performance Studies group did a very striking and powerful performance which was excellent and a change from the usual format of presentations.
After all the students had done their bit, it was time for a bit of fun! Firstly, the best flat team poster was given a prize (by our judges Neil, Philip and David - the Aimhigher managers!). Next the Gurus gave each of their students a small gift - which was a nice surprise for the students. The students then had a surprise for the Gurus. During the week, the Leaders had given each flat a 'Secret Task' of making a leaving present for their flat Guru's. The Gurus were all surprised as none of them had found out during the week - though said they were suspicious that much of their craft materials had been going missing from the kitchens! Now they knew why! The presents included a cardboard camper van for Guru Hayley, a 3-D photo frame for Guru Sarah, a survival kit for Guru Yaz, a signed A3 picture for Guru Fran, a random kid game for Guru Adam and a supply of jam and crisp sandwiches for Guru Phil! The students had all put a huge amount of time and effort into the presents which was a lovely ending for the Gurus.
Finally, we had the Summer School Graduation Ceremony - and a Ceremony wouldn't be complete without a gown and mortar board worn by one of the tutors, Ian Spiby. The Ceremony gave all the students a sense of achievement and a taste of a Higher Education Graduation Ceremony.
The Summer School ended with students signing each others t-shirts before they were picked up and taken home on the coaches.
The students all behaved excellently and the Gurus were fantastic and enthusiastic throughout, we all had brilliant fun the whole week and are already looking forward to next years Summer Schools.
