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Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation and Regional Collaboration, will discuss the new Access and Participation Plan agreed between the University of Cambridge and the government regulator, the Office for Students. This briefing will cover the contents of the plan and discuss the new targets agreed with the OfS, as well as the impact they may have on outreach and widening participation activity.

Please note that this is for Schools Liaison Officers only. This session offers training to enable Schools Liaison Officers to deliver CPD training in schools and colleges to help teachers support student’s progression to leading universities.

A drop-in session to discuss evaluation issues and topics related to Access & Participation work. Things you might want to discuss include:

• Learn more about the Access & Participation Evaluation Community of Practice
• Challenges in evaluation and getting the data
• Networking
• Evidencing projects/programmes/interventions
• Find out more about the benefits of a theory of change
• How to do a self-assessment on your evaluation
• Learn more about Office for Students (OfS) regulatory requirements and guidance
• Sounding board for plans/ideas

Or anything else A&P evaluation related!

Cambridge Admissions Office have organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

This session will be useful to anybody who delivers academic workshops, particularly to young people at an outreach related event, though the skills developed will also help to improve general presentation and teaching skills. It will be delivered by The Brilliant Club (https://thebrilliantclub.org/)

The course will be split into three main sessions:

• Working with Pre-Undergraduate Students -including understanding of disadvantage in the school, overview of WP (widening participation), managing behaviour and creating a positive environment.
• Designing Engaging and Interactive Sessions
• Turning your Research into a Taster Lecture or Course for School Pupils

NOTE: if you'd like to join the session remotely, please let us know in the Special Requirements section when booking. This will help us plan the session and manage physical numbers in the room.

This hybrid session, delivered online and in person, will outline and explain a simple 6-step process for designing and embedding evaluation for Access & Participation interventions and programmes. The process has been developed by the Cambridge Admissions Office and is flexible enough to be applied to many A&P interventions, regardless of the student lifecycle stage in question.

The Cambridge Admissions Office HEAT Team will organise termly HEAT User Group Meetings. The aim of these meetings is to inform users of HEAT updates and raise any common issues to the group. There will also be time for any questions and/or feedback.

These meetings are primarily aimed at Operational Leads, however if these representatives are unable to attend the proposed dates, other HEAT users are more than welcome to come along. We hope to see as many of you attend these meetings as possible in order to make them as beneficial as we can.

Cambridge Admissions Office have organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

This will be an informative session detailing examples of good practice in monitoring and evaluation, specifically related to outreach projects including those funded by the Widening Participation Project Fund. The session will cover general good practice in monitoring and evaluation, as well as featuring presentations from previous outreach projects detailing specific examples of monitoring and evaluation in practice.

Behaviour management training for outreach staff delivered by the Cambridge Admissions Office.

This training focuses on managing the needs and behaviour of both the group you and individual pupils. It will provide you with techniques and strategies you can use when delivering sessions to students. In this session, you’ll explore how your own behaviour influences your students’, and learn how to control your emotional responses when you’re interacting in the classroom. You’ll discover the latest techniques in classroom management and develop your capability to achieve consistency.

The training will take place in A329 - Counselling Service (Student Services Centre).

Cambridge Admissions Office have organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

This session is aimed at outreach professionals and those who frequently speak to prospective students at Open Days or similar events, who would like to increase their knowledge of the services offered to students across the University. Representatives from CUSU, the Disability Resource Centre, the Counselling Service and the Careers Service, will discuss the services they offer students.

Cambridge Admissions Office has organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students. There are two sessions - attendance at both it not compulsory. Both will be run by Dr Sam Lucy (Director of College Admissions).

• Session One: Undergraduate Admissions - An Overview (14:00-15:00)

This session will aim to explain the University’s admissions process and provide advice on how to communicate this to prospective applicants. These sessions are aimed at any academics and staff members wishing to increase their knowledge of the application process, and will be particularly useful to those who may communicate with prospective students at University Open Days or similar events. Please note that this session is aimed at those who are new to the University, or have little previous experience of the undergraduate admissions process in Cambridge.

• Session Two: Undergraduate Admissions- Answering Difficult Questions (15:15-16:30)

This session is aimed at academics and staff whose role may frequently involve talking to prospective students, parents, and teachers and will offer advice on how to respond to difficult or controversial questions.

Representatives from the Communications Office Social Media team will take you through how to best use social media to communicate with potential applicants, schools and students. This session will suit College, Faculty and Department outreach or communications staff, whether you currently have a social media account or are looking to set one up.

Cambridge Admissions Office have organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

The Working with Student Ambassadors Session will be led by the Cambassador team at the Cambridge Admissions Office, and cover the steps involved in recruiting, training and using student ambassadors for events such as open days and masterclasses. This briefing will be suitable for Faculty, Department or College staff who may wish to set up their own ambassador scheme, or who wish to improve ad-hoc events which require student volunteers.

Cambridge Admissions Office has organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

Aimed at all outreach practitioners at the University of Cambridge, this briefing will provide an overview of the recently revised WP Participant Targeting/Selection criteria for use on outreach initiatives. The authors of the paper will explain the rationale behind the paper's revised weighting of WP measures and some of the research underpinning the paper. There will also be some discussion on why targeting/selection is important as opposed to using first come/first serve or relying exclusively on teacher nominations.

This session is accompanied by a skills-based session in April aimed at those with less experience implementing targeting/selection criteria.

Cambridge Admissions Office has organised a series of briefing sessions in the coming weeks aimed at Schools Liaison Officers, Faculty/Department Outreach Staff, and any academics and staff members who will communicate with potential students.

Aimed at outreach practitioners with less experience using targeting/selection on their outreach programmes, this skills-based session will provide examples of good practice implementing targeting/selection drawn from experience running CAO programmes. The session will also explore ways to use other data sources and HEAT to make the process easier.

This session follows on from a briefing delivered in March explaining the new targeting/selection criteria adopted by the Collegiate University.