Each term we will bring you the latest news and updates; including events that have happened on campus and in local schools across the term and those ran by academic departments; as well as updates to key information such as
Student Finance, and general advice and guidance.
The Big Deal is an enterprise challenge that forms a core part of Warwick’s UniTracks programme in the first year. It is a 10-week programme where school teams create and develop either a business or social enterprise idea with the assistance of a dedicated Business Mentor and Student
Mentor. The Big Deal is organised by
Warwick Business School (WBS), in conjunction with the educational charity the
Brightside Trust .
For the first time, the Big Deal Launch took place over 2 days, from Friday 15 to
Saturday 16 January. 13 of the UniTracks schools are taking part this year, who are:
Barking Abbey School, Barrs Hill School,
Bordesley Green Girls’ School, Dagenham
Park C of E School, Dowdales School,
Eastbury Community School, Lady Manners
School, Sandwell Academy, St Michael’s
CE High School, Testwood Sports College,
The Warren School, Ulverston Victoria High
School and Whitley Academy.
Staying overnight meant that the teams got to meet their Mentors in a relaxed atmosphere on Friday evening, and start to build up their rapport by doing a quiz together – well done to the team from
Dowdales School who won!
On Saturday, the teams spent the day in their ‘hub room’ working on their first tasks and generating lots of ideas for their business or social enterprise idea. All teams were working hard throughout, as they are all super keen to get to the Grand Final, taking place at the WBS London Campus in the Shard in April. We look forward to welcoming the teams back onto campus in
March for the Presentation Heats!
*accurate at the time of print
Ambassador Interview:
Tam talks about her experiences
Warwick Bright Stars:
Raising aspirations in Primary
Schools
Science and Survival:
On 15th December pupils engaged in Science activity on campus
Student Progression Team:
Mentoring young people in schools across Coventry and
Warwickshire

This academic year we recruited 24
Warwick students to work as Student
Progression Ambassadors in 12 secondary schools in Coventry and
Warwickshire. After vigorous training and 12 successful school launches, these ambassadors are now mentoring
8 pupils each from either Year 9 or 10 in each school and will be working with them for a total of 7 consecutive weeks. The aim of the project is to raise aspirations, build confidence and create positive messages around Higher
Education and future choices.
With over 200 pupils involved, the mentoring sessions will culminate in 4 campus visit days where all the pupils will visit the University of Warwick campus, spend the day exploring and enjoying interactive academic taster sessions.
Over the last 4 years of the project we have seen many significant changes not only in attitudes to learning but in attainment as well. We feel strongly that through these mentoring sessions, pupils are able to interactive with positive role models, learn more about their educational choices and are more likely to make informed decisions about their futures. Teachers have remarked that ‘all the students were really engaged’ , and the mentors ‘pushed student out of their comfort zone’ .
Realising Opportunities (RO) is a unique collaboration of 15 leading, research intensive universities, working together to promote fair access and social mobility of students from groups under-represented in higher education. The programme combines mentoring, university advice, academic assistance and skills development to support members considering applying to university.
Realising Opportunities 2016 was launched at the University of Warwick earlier in January. We were delighted to welcome 42 Year 12 students with their parents on our campus for the start of this 2 year programme. Our 7th cohort has students from schools across Coventry and Warwickshire. We were very pleased to see 15 of them again during the February half-term on our EPQ workshop organised in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. The students carried out a group research project with the help of a PhD mentor from the university. The presentations exceeded our expectations and were not only informative and well-researched but also entertaining and delivered with confidence. Here’s what some of the students had to say:
“The workshop was very useful. It showed me what research at university is like and I was able to put newly learnt research techniques to the test.”
“It was good to carry out a research project from start to finish. It gave me more confidence about doing my EPQ.”
Warwick Bright Stars is the university’s outreach programme which aims at developing a sustainable partnership with local primary schools.
This term our second Science campus day in collaboration with the Chemistry Department welcomed approximately
150 Year 5 and 6 pupils from
Whitnash Primary School,
Sydenham Primary School and St
Mary’s Catholic Primary School.
They watched with excitement Nick Barker, our Senior Teaching Fellow from the
Chemistry department, create explosions, flames and elephant toothpaste! In the afternoon the children discovered the Warwick campus by taking on the treasure trail challenge.
When we asked students for their opinions on the day, they had this to say:
“Chemistry is awesome”
“University is good for your future, and there are people from all around the world here.”
Throughout January and February, 28 Warwick volunteers visited 8 schools in Coventry and
Warwickshire to deliver cross-curricular modules to Year
5 pupils in the following subjects: Law, Spanish Culture and Language, History and Business/Economics.
On 2 March we welcomed the students who took part, and their parents onto campus for the graduation ceremony, to celebrate their achievements.
Think Higher  is one of 34 HEFCE funded ‘National Networks for Collaborative Outreach’ and is the local network for the Coventry & Warwickshire region.
Each network will help to streamline Higher
Education outreach for local schools, as well as exploring new ways of delivering outreach to meet local needs and priorities.  The partners include the University of Warwick, Coventry
University, Warwickshire College Group and
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College. The website is now live at www.thinkhigher.ac.uk
.  It aims to bring together in one place, information for schools about outreach activity and events across the Coventry & Warwickshire region, as well as providing information and links on useful resources relating to Higher Education. You can also find us on Twitter at @thinkhighercw
2 Outreach at Warwick: Winter/Spring 2016
Since the last issue of the newsletter there have been some changes and additions to our Team here at Warwick, which are as follows:
Caroline Geraghty
Think Higher Project Co-ordinator
Caroline is Project Co-ordinator for Think Higher, part of the National Networks for Collaborative
Outreach (NNCO) scheme.  Working alongside
Martin, Caroline co-ordinates all aspects of the
Think Higher project.
Annunziata Videtta
Outreach Officer (Pathways to Law)
We welcome back Annunziata as Widening
Participation Offer for Pathways to Law, replacing
Anna Burchfiel. She is also responsible for the
Sutton Trust Summer School.
Hi, I’m Tam; I am a second year
English Literature student. As an
English student I obviously love reading, writing and researching literary theory. In my spare time, enjoy dancing, and I am also on the Education Executive
Committee for the Students’
Union as well being the Sikh
Society secretary, helping to organise student lead talks, as well as volunteering opportunities and socials.
What made you decide to become a Widening Participation
Ambassador?
My background has really influenced my reasons to apply to become a WP Ambassador. Growing up in Coventry in a working class, low income family where neither of my parents had any education – let alone been to university – I know first-hand how important this role is. After being part of the Pathways to Law programme and completing the Year 12 Experience Warwick
Summer School where the WP Ambassadors helped raise my aspirations and instilled self-belief, I knew that this was something I wanted to be a part of whilst at university.
What have your experiences been like so far?
These past two years of being a WP Ambassador have been amazing and I’m always telling my friends about it and that they should apply for it! The challenge of being a WP Ambassador is that that sometimes we only work with students for a few hours and so we don’t know their backgrounds, strengths, abilities and it can sometimes be difficult to do tasks. However, this is also the beauty of the role, as we often make a huge impact in a short amount of time.
Are you involved in any other projects? If so, how are they different to your Ambassador role?
I am also an SPT, RO, Sutton Scholars and Pathways to Law mentor.
The beauty about these programmes is that they are unique and offer something different to the students and ambassadors involved. The main difference between being a WP Mentor and a programme specific one is the length of time you are able to work with the students.
You can really see them grow intellectually, develop their skills and mature as students. When they do their final session or presentations, the students surprise you with how much they have learnt and the shift in attitudes towards their own ability and towards the future.
On 10 February 2016 we held our second ‘Schools Warwick Visit’ on campus. Nearly 400 Year 10-12 students and their teachers attended, from 14 schools from across the West Midlands region.
The day included a Campus Tour, a ‘Welcome to Warwick’ talk,
Student Finance talk and a question and answer session with a panel of university representatives. There were also stands providing information from the University Careers and Skills team, Warwick
Sport, Undergraduate Admissions and Student Funding and
Finance. From gathering feedback, the teachers who attended have asked for a look around the accommodation and this is something we are looking to arrange at our next event.
Thank you to all of the schools who attended, and we hope you can bring students to the next Schools Warwick Visit on Wednesday
29 June. If you are interested in attending the June ‘Schools
Warwick Visit’ please email the Outreach team for details at outreach@warwick.ac.uk
The third Faculty of Science “Science and Survival” event for
Year 11 pupils took place on 15 December 2015, involving the following 6 schools: Cardinal Wiseman, Coventry;
Heath Park, Wolverhampton; Lyndon School, Solihull; Stoke
Park, Coventry; Waverley School, Birmingham; Woodlands
Academy, Coventry. Pupils went to three sessions exploring different sciences, all sampling something that is not studied at GCSE level. Subjects on offer were chemistry, engineering, life sciences, mathematics, physics and psychology.
Feedback from the day was positive, with 88% of the pupils saying they were more interested in studying science after their GCSEs and 85% saying they were motivated to work harder to get the grades for university.
A taster of the comments pupils gave when asked which session they found most useful and why are listed below.
“Chemistry – the session made me realise how important it is to use problem solving skills to help the world”
“Psychology gave me a better understanding on the subject and what it involves and it was a new subject”
“Engineering because I have an interest in computer science and it showed how the two are related” warwick.ac.uk/outreach 3

The Royal Institution Engineering Masterclasses, which Warwick run annually, have taken place over 6 Saturday mornings across the spring term, concluding on 12th March. Local schools were invited to nominate two Year 9 students to attend these sessions
(a boy and a girl).
The masterclass series aimed to open the eyes of the young people to the excitement, beauty and value that engineering brings to our society. Each masterclass focused on an aspect of modern engineering and was presented by an engineer actively involved in research or working in industry. Research and undergraduate students provided tutorial support for the masterclasses, and were a very valuable resource to the students involved.
Students worked in teams to complete a number of investigations and practical tasks on a range of topics. Most were unaware of the breadth of engineering, and this really enlightened them. This year’s sessions included: 3D Design &
Printing, Crystal Structures, Coastal Engineering, Autonomous
Vehicles, Cyber Security and Crash Structures.
At the end of the series there was a celebration event with families and teachers invited to share the activities that had been covered.
More information is available here: warwick.ac.uk/riengineering
For Year 12 students beginning their university research journey, it is fundamental that they understand the student finance system and the costs involved in starting a degree course. The Funding Outreach team are able to provide a funding and finance overview to help them understand the basics of student finance, the costs involved and how to pay it all back.
Your Year 13 students should have applied for their student finance and returned their declaration to Student Finance England by the end of May. We recommend that students apply for their finance as soon as the applications open to ensure that their funding is in place at the start of their course, so please pass on this message to your students.
In addition to our work with students, we are also able to offer an overview to parents/carers at your Sixth Form events.
To book a session, please contact the Funding Outreach team on
024 7657 5595 or email fundingoutreach@warwick.ac.uk
.

26th May 2016 Teacher’s and Advisor’s Conference
1st-3rd June 2016 A2 Revision Boot Camp (Year 13)
22nd June 2016 Get Ready to Apply (Year 12)
29th June 2016 Schools Warwick Visit (Years 11-13)
outreach@warwick.ac.uk
024 7657 3555
 warwick.ac.uk/outreach
 @OutreachWarwick
4 Outreach at Warwick: Winter/Spring 2016