During the last academic year, a group of year 9 students at Brompton Academy have been attending workshops led by Postgraduate Ambassadors from School of English and the School of European Culture and Languages and supported by English Undergraduate Ambassadors.
These workshops took an innovative approach to supporting these students to develop their literacy and research skills, as well as historical knowledge, through activities that combined creative writing and ancient history. The students began to explore characters and experiences from the Ancient Roman world and to discover how Rome has changed over time. They were then invited to apply for the Minerva Award run by the University of Kent’s Partnership Development office and six students were successful in winning places on a trip to the Kent’s centre in Rome.
In order to complete the award students who attended the trip have written an article about their experience, given a presentation, and planned a final event – a ‘Roman Feast’ to be held in July 2018 – at which they will share their research and creative projects with invited guests.
The Student Ambassadors have been a part of the programme throughout, supporting the students with their work, developing and delivering activities. The project has been highly rewarding for everyone involved, and we are very excited to share with you some of the articles written by the students. The School of English hopes to be able to run the project again next year to give more students this fantastic opportunity.