This week, SHARE with Schools celebrated 10 years of outreach! This is a programme focused on breaking barriers and widening participation by bringing history, archaeology and religion to schools in the Cardiff area with traditionally low numbers moving on to university. This incredible milestone was celebrated with a University Press Release - something the team were incredibly excited about!
The day consisted of the above press release as well as a 'twitter storm' from our School twitter (left), the official SHARE with Schools account as well as our mighty leader, coodinators past and present and members of staff who have helped the scheme along the way.
Not only was this an amazing way to celebrate a decade of widening participation and breaking barriers, but the scheme was recognised and congratulated by the official university account for the work it has been doing both in English and Welsh!
This is a project that everyone involved with is so passionate about, and that is what makes it such a success. It is student-led with postgraduate coordinators leading and organising and undergraduate volunteers who run the sessions with schools. Through the student-pupil interaction, SHARE with Schools creates a safe space for school pupils to explore the subjects of history, archaeology and religion and discover what it would be like to study at university. Through our students visiting these schools (and vice versa during summer return visits for a lucky few pupils), the realities and attainability of higher education for these children and teenagers become apparent. Our programme is here to show them they can continue into higher education - it is an option and a viable one too.
I am a postgraduate coordinator with the scheme along with 4 amazing PhD students. We are currently developing our programme for the covid context, digitising and reinventing workshops to use on a virtual platform. Whilst this is a challenging task, throwing up obstacles we are excited and confident about our upcoming workshops. Whilst we miss being able to physically visit schools to interact with their students, the digital age enables us to continue our workshops, continue widening participation and continue breaking barriers.
Here's to another decade of SHARE with Schools!