Senior leaders from Cambridge University visit Colyton Grammar School

News - Mar 19

Last week, we had a visit from Senior leaders at Cambridge University. We were extremely grateful and humbled that the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Deborah Prentice, was able to visit, joined by her colleagues Mike Nicholson, Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Participation, Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation and Collaborative Outreach, Angel Gurria-Quintana, head of Vice-Chancellor’s Office, Dr Sarah Kennedy, RJ Owens, Fellow in English, Downing College Cambridge and Dr Kamran Yunus, Fellow in Chemical Engineering and Head of Admissions at Downing.  

In the morning, Dr Yumus and Dr Kennedy delivered lectures about degrees in Chemical Engineering and the poetry of TS Eliot respectively to Sixth Form students. Kennedy is a world expert on TS Eliot, who work is studied by English A-Level students, and we are so grateful to both Sarah and Kamran for taking the time to support our students in this way.  

The primary reason for the visit of this senior group of academics from one of the world’s leading universities was to discuss a joint venture with the Colyton Foundation. Under the leadership of Mr Wakeling, the Foundation has created a coalition of partners that include Cambridge University, Bristol University and the Sutton Trust with the aim of supporting under-resourced students from the South West to obtain places at highly selective universities. The Vice Chancellor stated that this is an innovative project as it brings together Cambridge University with regional universities, schools and multi academy trusts to improve outcomes and aid social justice.  

In the afternoon, we were joined by senior colleagues from leading regional Multi Academy Trusts; the CEO of Education South West Mr Matthew Shanks, the CEO of Ted Wragg, Mrs Moira Marder and two representatives from The Blackdown Education Partnership, Mr Pav Sanghera and Mr Rob Crocker.  

‘…schools remain one of the few remaining trusted institutions equipped to help create a fairer society. – explicitly thinking about how teaching can be genuinely inclusive to benefit all pupils, while relentlessly identifying, understanding and overcoming barriers to learning outside (and inside) school – are the interlocking foundations of equity-based education’ (Lee Elliot Major, University of Exeter) 

Professor Lee Elliot Major is a leading academic voice on the subject of social justice. In his most recent book, ‘Equity in Education’, he firstly states that the word ‘equity’ signals the need to provide additional support for pupils who need it the most, amid increasing societal divides outside the school gates. Moreover, he argues that ‘Our reason for replacing the term ‘disadvantaged pupils’ with ‘children from under-resourced backgrounds’ are to avoid the trap of deficit thinking. The deficit approach frames certain children as somehow inferior, in need of conversation (or education) to fit the middle-class norms of the classroom. It places more value on certain roles in society’. 

Our role as a school and indeed with the Colyton Foundation work is to create belonging and unity, and as Owen Eastwood writes in his book ‘Belonging’ “To not feel belonging is to experience the precarious and insecure sense of an outsider”. This is a very exciting time for the future of Colyton Grammar School and our foundation as this new and powerful coalition will work with a cohort to up to 100 under-resourced students, beginning in Year 7. In partnership with SWIFT and Atom Learning, we are also making the Atom Home adaptive learning platform available to all under-resourced Year 4 and Year 6 students in the South West.