Sutton Trust Summer Schools

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• Sutton Trust Summer Schools
• Ian Blenkharn, University of Bristol

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Background

• The Sutton Trust funds four residential summer
  schools in England
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Nottingham
• Oxford

• Characteristics
• For Year 12 students
• One week
• Academically focussed

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Each student on a Sutton Trust Summer school opts
into a particular subject stream that they will
follow throughout the week.

• At Bristol, we offer 6 subject streams
• Engineering
• Humanities
• Law
• Medicine
• Science
• Social Science.

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What is the Sutton Trust?
"The main objective of the Sutton Trust is to
support innovative projects that provide
educational opportunities for young people from
non-privileged backgrounds." - Sir Peter Lampl,
Chairman of the Sutton Trust
The Sutton Trust is an educational charity which
funds projects with students from all ages -
from nursery level, through to further and higher
education. The summer school programme has been
in operation since 1997.
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Selecting Students for the Summer School
Recruitment is handled by the Sutton Trust before
the universities make the final selection from
those students who have applied to their
institution.

• Students are selected based on the following
  criteria
• Whether they come from a non-professional
  background
• Whether they will be the first in their family
  to access HE.
• Whether they attend schools or colleges with
  low progression rates to HE
• Their academic ability at least 5A/A grades
  at GCSE.

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How it works at Bristol
We recruit 120 students nationwide, with 20
students on each subject stream.
The Sutton Trust Summer School runs alongside the
ESF-funded Higher Education Summer School for
Year 11s, which means that some social activities
are shared eg the disco.

• The days are split between academic subject
  sessions and non-academic sessions including
• UCAS application advice
• Student Societies Activities
• Sports Afternoon
• Student Life/Student Finance.

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Similarities Sutton Trust HESS

• Both one-week residential experiences
• Both share a number of sessions, including some
  academic sessions, the sports and societies
  afternoon, and elements of the social programme.
• Both include taster sessions in different
  subjects not a structured programme of
  activities that build on previous sessions.

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Differences Sutton Trust HESS

• Sutton Trust more academically focussed not
  just aspiration raising.
• Sutton Trust only operates in a few Russell
  Group universities.
• More focus on applications to university
  particularly to the Russell Group.

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Managing the Summer School
The Summer School is led by a Site Director and
Site Manager with overall responsibility for the
summer school. In addition, there is a team of 12
mentors and a lead mentor who attend academic
sessions with particular groups and ensure their
Health and Safety throughout the week. All
mentors and the site manager are resident at the
summer school for the duration of the week.
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Outcomes
Due to the high academic calibre of these
students, the Sutton Trust Summer School is seen
as a direct recruitment opportunity.
Sutton Trust 2004 Applications 56 Offers
35 CF 13 Intake - 7
Sutton Trust 2005 Applications 63 Offers
44 CF 14 Intake - 13
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• However, direct recruitment from the summer
  school is not the only outcome and the Sutton
  Trust Summer Schools are seen as a useful
  recruitment tool for all Russell Group
  universities.
• Research is currently being undertaken by the
  Sutton Trust as part of the 10 year anniversary
  of the summer school programme
• Destinations of summer school students at
  university and in the graduate employment market.
• Locating the missing 3000.

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General Impressions
The feedback from students, academics and summer
school staff is all overwhelmingly positive. The
week acts as a great introduction to HE for a
group of students who certainly have the academic
ability but perhaps not the necessary support to
progress to university.