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B6 RAY CLASS OF 2022 VISIT LANCASTER UNIVERSITY FOR GRADUATION CEREMONY

B6 RAY CLASS OF 2022 VISIT LANCASTER UNIVERSITY FOR GRADUATION CEREMONY

Year 10 students from Atherton High School, Harper Green School, Mount St Joseph Catholic School, Sharples School, Smithills School, St Joseph’s R.C High School and Westhoughton High School had a fantastic day at Lancaster University celebrating their graduation from The Sixth Form Bolton RAY (Raising Aspirations Youth) Programme.

RAY is a one-year programme for gifted and talented Year 10 students. It’s designed to equip the students with the necessary skills to excel in their studies and involves a range of activities, seminars and visits which broadens their horizons, teaches them new skills and helps them to make new friends.

RAY World of Work Session

As part of the programme, the students have attended five sessions at The Sixth Form where they have worked in mixed groups with students from other schools. As well as a Debate Night and World of Work session, they were also able to choose a subject area or strand that interested them. The strands offered were Art & Design, Business, Computer Science, Creative & Communication Studies, Health & Childcare, Humanities & Social Sciences, Sport and STEM. The RAY group attended two sessions focussed on their chosen strands where they took part in engaging activities related to those subject areas. These included a blindfolded baby food tasting in Health & Childcare, an opportunity to create protest art in Art & Design and a sports massage activity in Sport.

RAY Launch Night

In their final session, the RAY group visited Lancaster University which gave the students the opportunity to enjoy a range of activities. In the morning, they had a campus tour which provided an insight into university life and the benefits of undertaking a degree-level qualification. During the second half of the day,  the students experienced a graduation ceremony, celebrating their RAY achievements and receiving their completion certificates from a member of Lancaster University staff.

Lancaster University Campus Tour

Jill Whitham, RAY Co-ordinator, felt the programme had been a huge success and said:

‘The trip to Lancaster university is the culmination of a year-long commitment from our RAY students and a chance to celebrate all their hard work and commitment.  During this academic year, our RAY students have developed key skills in teamwork, communication and the art of debating, which will be of great benefit to both their academic studies and future careers.  During the RAY programme, students have also had the opportunity to sample a range of subject areas by taking part in their chosen strand and learning more about studying at sixth form level.  

During our visit to Lancaster University, we rounded the day off with our RAY graduation ceremony, which was a great way to acknowledge the students’ fantastic achievements during the RAY programme as a whole.’

We would like to congratulate all of the participants on their RAY graduation and to thank all of the school staff, Lancaster University team and B6 staff who’ve been instrumental in making this such a successful programme. 

For more information on the RAY programme, please contact Simon Christian (schristian@bolton-sfc.ac.uk).