There were famous footsteps to follow, when students from St Clement’s High School visited Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

A group of Year 10 students from our school spent the day at ‘Keys’, which was founded in 1348 and boasts such world-renowned alumni as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, David Attenborough, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and King Charles III.

“Year 10 students enjoyed an informative and fascinating tour of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,” said Jenny Ford, Librarian at St Clement’s, which is a member of the West Norfolk Academies Trust. “It is situated in the heart of Cambridge and is a vibrant and thriving setting for undergraduates in the city.

“We started the day with a presentation focusing on the structure of the 31 constituent colleges that form the University of Cambridge, followed by an overview of the vast number of academic courses that are available to study. We learnt about the distinguished Cambridge University alumni across science, literature, and royalty.”

The visitors also had the opportunity to meet students currently studying at Gonville and Caius, as well as enjoying a tour of the college, and getting a taste of university life.

“We were given a tour of the library, which has been used since 1441,” continued Mrs Ford. “It houses 350 manuscripts from the medieval era, making it the largest medieval library in the University.

“We were then treated to the unique experience of dining in the hall alongside university students. The hall is decorated with a mix of traditional and contemporary art and stained-glass windows, and featured in the hall is a large flag that was taken to the South Pole in 1911.

“The day concluded with a visit to the University Museum of Zoology, where we viewed a whole range of specimens spanning the entire animal kingdom from elephants, giant ground sloths, giraffes, and unusual reptiles to a skeleton from the extinct dodo.”

The visit proved informative and inspirational for our students.

“The trip to the University of Cambridge was an eye-opening experience that really showed me the possibilities and opportunities that are available after college,” said Alex. “The infrastructure and the aesthetics of the different parts of the campus were captivating and influential.

“The hall was a great place for socialising, as was the library, which is a massive part of the university life. The tour guide we had was a student that studies at the university, and he was really useful as a reliable insight into how the university works and what life is like.”

“At the end of the visit, we all had a new appreciation for all that Cambridge has to offer, either from an academic perspective or to simply absorb the beautiful architecture and historical sites,” added Mrs Ford.

“Several of our Year 10 cohort aspire to study at Cambridge, and this visit certainly provided the motivation and inspiration to study hard.”