“The Experience of a Lifetime”: Back at the University of Bath for our Year 10 Residential

“The Experience of a Lifetime”: Back at the University of Bath for our Year 10 Residential

13.08.2024

Future Leaders from 10 schools came together to discover the many options open to them when leaving school.

In July, we were thrilled to hold our 2nd Year 10 residential at the University of Bath. This year 81 Future Leaders from our hubs across the country travelled to Bath, some by coach and some by plane!

Residentials are a vital and enriching part of our programme. They offer young people time away from the classroom to explore a range of future pathways, including university, apprenticeships and careers, and bring students together to work on group projects over the week. Future Leaders rated the residential at least 4 out of 5, with 90% of students telling us that it met or exceeded their expectations.

Monique, a Future Leader from Norwich, told us: “I was already thinking about going to university but this has definitely helped open my eyes to not only the options outside of uni, but how much I enjoyed being at university.” 

Our programme for the residential kicked off with a morning session with Dale from My Great First Job, who led an insightful workshop on apprenticeships. This dedicated time allowed our Future Leaders to deepen their understanding of alternative post-16 pathways. We were also joined for a careers session by Sopra Steria volunteers who challenged students to use strategies for time management and prioritisation to deliver their projects on time.

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Students working during their skills building sessions on team work.

Our amazing Student Ambassadors also took Future Leaders on a tour of Bath. As well as discovering the city’s history and seeing iconic landmarks, students got to enjoy time off-campus and continue developing new friendships and connections.

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Tour of the City of Bath, led by the University's Student Ambassadors.

Tom, a Future Leader from Swindon, added, “I absolutely loved doing the trip around the city. It’s the thing I’ve been most excited for when I first heard about the trip because I love seeing historical sights.”

The week culminated in a careers fair where Future Leaders presented their project work to their peers. Throughout the week students produced poster-boards and presentations on careers in subjects they were interested in. They put an incredible amount of work into make these projects not only informative but also vibrant and creative! 

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Poster-boards of students' work.

Karen Kingston, Programme Coordinator in Swindon, said: “It was great to see how well the Future Leaders bonded with each other over the 4 days. They formed some good inter-school friendships.” 

We asked our Future Leaders for three words or phrases to sum up their experience at the residential: 

“Super enjoyable, lots of new friends, lovely living away from home experience” 


“Fun, enjoyable, informative” 



“Experience of a lifetime, building relationships and developing skills” 

To find out more about the Future Leaders Programme click here!

Thanks to the University of Bath, Sopra Steria, the Essex Community Foundation and all those supporters who helped to make the residential such a success. A special thanks to the Student Ambassadors for being brilliant hosts! 

By Bronagh Sumner April 25, 2025
In September 2024, we were thrilled to have Emma Cross join our team as a Progression Coach in Hastings and Bexhill. Before working at Villiers Park, Emma worked as a teacher across multiple schools in East Sussex and internationally. What does your role entail? As a Progression Coach, my role involves supporting young people across Hastings and Bexhill ?" especially those from underrepresented backgrounds ?" in achieving their academic and career aspirations. I provide one-to-one sessions to help students develop confidence, resilience and goal setting skills as well as supporting students in identifying their strengths, interests and potential career pathways. This support could either be through university and apprenticeship applications, personal statements, interview preparation, internships or other alternative career pathways. I have also been involved in organising and delivering workshops around applying for university and managing exam anxiety. What did you do before coming to Villiers Park? I spent some time in Hong Kong studying and teaching English at a local primary school. Throughout my time teaching, I discovered a passion for learning about education in international contexts, so I decided to study a MA in International Education and Development at the University of Sussex. From this, I gained valuable insights on the impact of globalisation on education policy and practice. I also volunteered with the Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link, where I had the opportunity to travel to Hastings, Sierra Leone, and work with some amazing individuals, focusing on developing education and healthcare around the surrounding areas of Freetown. What is your biggest project at the moment? My biggest project now is supporting our Future Leaders with their Leadership Challenge projects. I spend a lot of time working with groups, supporting them with their project proposals and implementation. We have some great projects this year, such as a community beach clean, a research presentation around A-Level Law, teaching a Year 7 PE lesson and a whole school football tournament. What is the biggest challenge you are currently facing in your role? The biggest challenge I am currently facing is finding local and contextual apprenticeship and work experience opportunities for our Future Leaders. Hastings and Bexhill have a limited offering for these opportunities, so it makes it difficult for our Future Leaders to feel motivated and involved in apprenticeships. What is your favourite part about your job? My favourite part of the job is seeing the direct impact you have on students’ confidence and aspirations. Watching students grow and see them go from uncertain about their future to feeling empowered and motivated and building strong relationships with young people and being their trusted mentor who helps them navigate challenges. Also, knowing that your work is making a real difference in creating social mobility and giving students access to opportunities, like university insight days, they might not have had otherwise. What is a book you will always recommend? This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ?" high science fiction meets with poetic love literary! If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would you go? It has always been my dream to go to Japan! I’m fascinated by the culture and landscape ?" and Japanese food is my favourite!? Or New Zealand to see all the different locations where they filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Who are your two dream dinner party guests? Wow! So many people I would choose... but I would have to go with Chino Moreno from the band Deftones ?" just so I can talk about all the things I love about his music! And Hakuri Murakami to talk all things literature. What would your perfect weekend look like? A perfect weekend would be brunch in my favourite cafe (must have good coffee!), a sunny walk around the South Downs with the dogs, ending up in a pub with good friends, food and a band!
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