Reach Cambridge July 2016: Day 1

We’ve had a busy day here at Reach – everyone started bright and early for breakfast in college, after which it was off to the first classes of the program! The students were guided to their various classrooms (which were in Trinity Hall, Downing College and Downing Site), met their teachers and got their first taste of their exciting new subjects. Classes ran until 1:00 and the students were then free to explore everything the centre of Cambridge has to offer in terms of lunch. Everyone then met together again to split into teams for the fantastic afternoon ‘Instravaganza’ – a scavenger hunt extravaganza using Instagram! The students took over the centre of Cambridge as they were challenged to answer a set of questions about the city and university by taking photos in front of different sites, and even getting selfies with a Porter! They also had to try and complete a map with the names of all the different Cambridge colleges- not an easy task! The students had great fun taking all sorts of crazy photos – there were prizes for the most creative photos and best team name. Some students enjoyed having photobombers in every picture, while others went as far as to create a whole story out of their sequence of photographs! These were then uploaded to Instagram to be judged – winners to be announced soon!! There was a bit of free time after the scavenger hunt and the students enjoyed relaxing around college and getting to know their new friends better. Instravaganza entryAfter dinner there was the chance to get to know even more new friends with the whole group ‘icebreaker’ games on the Downing Paddock. It was wonderful to have everyone together playing all sorts of games to get over any nervousness about being with new people- everyone was soon bonding through some healthy competition between teams as they competed in relays using straws and even human bingo. There was the chance to split into smaller groups for games, an opportunity to really get to know a new set of people. The field was soon ringing with yells of ‘Splat!’ and all kinds of interesting animals noises… It’s safe to say the students have had good fun today and it’s amazing to see new friendships forming already. Looks like a fantastic standard has been set for the rest of the program! Written by Fiona Dobson, Supervisor