After months of planning, today it was at last time to welcome our students to our new Spring course. We could barely believe the day had finally arrived! For a handful of team members, this meant getting up SUPER early to travel to Heathrow and Gatwick airports to meet some students in arrivals… But the early start was worth it to see our students’ smiling faces and to be able to officially welcome them to the UK.
Once our students had arrived and settled into their rooms in Reach Hall (a Victorian house which used to be Girton College accommodation), they were led into the city centre to get their bearings and their lunch! We wound our way back to Reach Hall via King’s Parade, where they could get their first glimpse of the famous King’s College chapel and Senate House. Luckily, there was a graduation ceremony going on today, so the students wasted no time in experiencing the splendid – and sometimes strange – pomp and circumstance of university ceremonies.
When all of our number had finally arrived, the students had an official Welcome Talk from David and Monika, the Course Co-Director and Director of Curriculum respectively. This was to ensure the students were aware of some practicalities and health and safety proceedings, as well as to remind them of the layout of the city and some famous Cambridge alumni. It was then that the students received their first piece of Reach Cambridge homework… All our dorms have been themed with the names of different colleges. For ‘homework’, their task was to notice which ‘college’ they had been sorted into, and to discover some famous past students. The rooms feature a couple of suggestions to get them started (for example, Stephen Hawking from Trinity Hall) , but the students were also encouraged to do their own research, to see if any of the alumni were of particular inspiration to them.
The weather was very kind to us today, and, despite the forecast of April showers, we were able to head onto neighbouring Jesus Green for some ‘icebreaker’ games in the sunshine. This involved some name-learning and some quick reflexes, as the students and supervisors enjoyed activities such as ‘Splat!’ and ‘The Human Knot’ in the Spring sunshine.
The evening was rounded off with a meal at a nearby restaurant, and then a relaxing wind-down before bed. We hope our students sleep soundly in their new home-from-home, and we look forward to welcoming in tomorrow’s day of fun… Academic tour and punting are on the cards!
You can keep up to date with our students by checking back on this blog, which will be updated daily during the Spring program. We have also begun documenting the days on the Reach Cambridge Instagram Story – find us on Instagram as @reachcambridge and click ‘follow’ to keep up to date!
Welcome Talk
Icebreakers
