Future Stars Get a Feel for Student-life at UEA

All of us at Wayland Academy were delighted when a number of our Year 7 pupils were invited to visit the University of East Anglia and get a feel for student life as part of their Future Stars programme.  

UEA set up the Future Stars programme to provide students from primary school and upwards with the opportunity to explore what universities have to offer, motivating them to aim for higher education and pursue degree-level studies - something that tends to be even more important for any child that may be the first person in their family to have ever considered university.

During the programme, students are introduced to the concept of attending a university and are helped to debunk some of the common reasons that often dissuade young people from aspiring to go onto higher education. All of us at Wayland Academy know how important it is to show our pupils that they are capable of achieving highly and to have ambition - a vision which the UEA and its Future Stars Programme shares with us.

The initiative also sees pupils get invited to visit the UEA Campus where they can take their time to look around the lecture theatres, sports facilities, campus cafes and study spaces, as well as the various university accommodations that are available. These visits are always led by enthusiastic student ambassadors that are very knowledgeable and are able to answer the numerous questions pupils have as they tour the campus.

Finally, as part of the programme, our students got the chance to take a tour around the UEA’s much-loved Sportspark. Our Year 7s were delighted to be able to try out the climbing wall with the support of two fantastic instructors who even managed to encourage the most nervous pupils to give it a try. 

The Sportspark staff then helped students understand the breadth of sports offered at the university, some sports, such as Korfball were unknown to our pupils but ended up being a hot topic of conversation as the staff explained that it proves to be extremely popular at the university.

We thank UEA for the invite and look forward to returning with more Future Stars over the coming years!