In the first of our sixth form ‘blog spots’, Lucy M C in Year 12, has written of her recent experiences at the Access to Bristol Introductory Session.

Back in September, I applied to the Access to Bristol programme and had my first session last Wednesday. For those that don’t know about Access to Bristol, it allows local students in Year 12 or equivalent, to have a small taste of university life at Bristol University, over an 8-week period. I was lucky enough to receive a place out of the 1,300 people that applied.

After a slightly confusing journey that relied heavily on Google Maps, I was directed into a lecture hall where the session began. We were greeted with smiles and free food and were informed of some recent impressive statistics concerning the universities employability rate and the benefits of being a part of Access to Bristol programme; information that I was previously oblivious to.

Going in to this I had no idea that, if I completed the course, I received an offer form Bristol University for any course I wanted so long as I had the right grades and subjects at A level. Quite honestly if it weren’t for this programme I would never have even considered going to Bristol for university simply because it’s just too close to home (sorry mum). But now that I’ve basically received a place in Bristol, an amazing uni, so long as I work hard for the grades, I’m reconsidering: very clever of Bristol if you think about it.

The introductory session also included a campus tour, that was much colder than anticipated, but I got to know the students doing the same course as me: Childhood Studies. It was very strange being the young people in a school again as I haven’t felt like that in a while so there were certainly some scary flashbacks to Year 7!

The session ended back in the lecture hall where everyone, no matter what course they were there to study, received a Law lecture. Needless to say, it was an extremely simplified law lecture (thankfully!). Everyone seemed genuinely intrigued and willingly contributed their thoughts and ideas concerning when a child should be deemed responsible for their own lives and bodies. I won’t go into the fairly depressing details but there were certainly thought provoking cases that even made me consider taking Law.

It was a promising start and I’m excited to start learning more about my actual course over the next 8 weeks. Who knows, this experience may even convince me to not venture too far from Bath – unlikely but possible.

Lucy M-C, Year 12