The Story

Since 2016, a group of students and academics at University College London (UCL) have been organising Summer Schools. The programme gives students from London state schools a chance to observe the research taking place at the London Centre of Nanotechnology (LCN), a multidisciplinary enterprise operating at the forefront of science and technology and UCL Department of Physics.

The Summer School programme then opened to recently arrived young Forced Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK, who experience ‘being lost in the GCSE vacuum because of their lower English level’. In 2019, the course ran for two weeks and 40 participants were signed up.

What We Do

The Summer Schools aims to help with the linguistic needs of the students and also providing skills that would help them to settle into the relatively new environment. In addition to English reinforcement, the Summer School includes daily practical workshops in groups covering diverse STEM subjects (physics, chemistry, biology) and providing useful coding & IT skills.

The funding received is used to cover transport expenses for the students to get to UCL campus and provide them with lunch. All organisers and mentors are volunteers.

English

In small groups, an English teacher helps the students to improve their writing, speaking, listening and reading skills. The groups are made depending on levels in order to reach the highest impact and fast improvement.

Science

After lunch, all the students meet up in the afternoon for an exciting practical workshop. They learn how to build their own microscope or extract DNA from fruits.

IT & coding

The students have the opportunity to develop their IT and coding skills. They learn how to code and control a friendly programmable robot, learn Word, Excel and Powerpoint, create their email address and build a CV.