St Mary’s Hosts Aimhigher Event for Young People in Care

An event to help equip young people in care with academic and soft skills and to expose them to the world of Higher Education has recently been held at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.

The Aimhigher London South event was hosted by the University as part of Aimhigher’s Next Steps programme and is designed to ensure fair access to higher education for young people from care backgrounds.

Those attending were treated to a Sports and Law session by Programme Director for Law at St Mary’s Jenny Henry as well as a workshop on the clarity of voice through breathing exercises and dictation by third year Applied Theatre student Lucy George.

The sessions gave the youngsters an opportunity to develop their understanding of law and the effect it has in our day-to-day lives as well as giving them the confidence to consider law as a subject which could be accessible to them should they want to study it at university.

The event was hosted by St Mary’s Widening Participation and Outreach team, who aim to help remove any barriers that might deter a learner from progressing onto higher education and work with groups that are under-represented.

They do this by designing pre-entry programmes aimed at raising aspiration levels, normalising university, providing mentorship and academic support for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Widening Participation and Outreach Manager at St Mary’s Luke Chapman said, “We have a great relationship with Aimhigher London South and were delighted to be able to host such a worthwhile event at St Mary’s. We work tirelessly helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into university and events such as this only assist us in this goal.”

Find out more about what the University’s Widening Participation and Outreach team does on the St Mary’s website.