Today was the last day of lessons this week before an exciting long weekend of excursions and fun! Our teachers continue to be so impressed by their students’ dedication, enthusiasm and willingness to participate and learn: our wonderful English teacher, in particular, was singing praises about his students and their sensitive and provocative discussion of the feminist themes in the new Barbie film. Other students experimented with their taster courses, ranging from an intellectually stimulating salon with our History and Politics teacher, to a motivating course for Young Leaders, to a topical class on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence as well as a thought-provoking and informative lesson on Architecture. For some of our students, it’s nearly time for their big experience: university! And it is so positive to see them ask really insightful and considered questions about how to go about broadening their academic horizons, as well as attend workshops hosted throughout the program about how to improve their university application from current Cambridge students.
Later in the day – thankfully the weather was kind to us! – lots headed over to Downing’s idyllic paddocks to take part in the long-awaited Capture the Flag! Although a relatively simple game, it provoked a lot of competition between our students and it was so great to see how involved and excited our students were to run around and work together to win the game! Very fast-paced and requiring a lot of quick-thinking, our students shone. Some wanted to exercise their minds instead with a serious afternoon full of chess – we seem to have many experts in our midst (which made for some frustrated supervisors…).
The evening lecture has been eagerly awaited by all: it was time for the interactive workshop given by the One-Drum Foundation, which is a UK charity made up of African musicians and performers whose purpose is to educate about the history and culture of Africa’s music. Drums aplenty and musical talent abundant, the lecture theatre was the place to be tonight. The students were all buzzing after this exciting and rich opportunity!
Everyone is super excited about our excursion tomorrow where we are going to take our students to London for a delightful river cruise and chance for shopping in UK’s fashion capital as well as an edifying trip to the Globe and the Tate Modern! Stay tuned for updates about tomorrow and don’t forget to check out our Instagram and Tiktok (on @reachcambridge, as usual) to see lots of pictures and videos about what our students are getting up to :) !
