Each year Christ's College, Cambridge works in collaboration with Sidney Sussex and Murray Edwards Colleges to run an August summer school for Year 11 students who live in areas of low participation to higher education (on this page, we've abbreviated 'low participation neighbourhoods' to 'LPN', in case you're confused!).
Are you currently in Year 11 (England/Wales - Year 12 in Northern Ireland and S4 in Scotland)? Check your eligibility and then register your interest for LPN 2022 by completing this short form. We will then email you once applications open.
The LPN Summer School is a two-year long programme for students who live in areas where few young people enter higher education, and takes place in the summer holidays. You can find the information about this programme, subjects, eligibility criteria and how to apply below. We strongly recommend reading this page carefully before making an application!
- Dates
- What does the summer school involve?
- Subject strands
- Eligibility criteria
- How to apply
- Information for teachers
The LPN Summer School 2022
The dates for 2022 are TBC but are expected to fall in the second half of August.
What does the summer school involve?
The summer school takes place for a few days in August just after you have taken your GCSEs, with meals and accommodation provided for you in one of the Cambridge Colleges. LPN normally takes place in person in Cambridge, though the format for 2022 has not yet been decided.
The programme includes a variety of masterclasses given by Cambridge University researchers, an opportunity to get to know Cambridge, information about making an application to Cambridge, and a chance to meet current Cambridge students and staff. There will also be a variety of interactive social events for students to meet others on the programme!
After the summer school, the Colleges provide continuing support during Year 12 and there is a follow-up summer school at the end of Year 12 to which you are automatically invited. This will include free accommodation and meals, as well as social activities to give you a taste of student life and get to know others on the programme!
What does the summer school cost?
The whole summer school is free of charge, including meals and accommodation but excluding travel. If you feel that you may require travel expenses to be able to attend, please get in touch, as some limited support may be available.
Subject Strands
As part of the summer school programme, students have the opportunity to attend a series of seminars that will introduce them to the study of a particular subject at university level.
The following subject strands will be available for the 2021 summer school:
- Medicine
- Biological Sciences
- Physical Sciences
- Mathematics
- English
- History
- Law
- Social Sciences
The application form will ask for your first and - if you have one - second preference strand.
In addition to a set of academic sessions in the selected strand, those who are selected for a place on the event will also have the opportunity to try something new in subject/s not explicitly covered in the above strands. These have previously included Computer Science, Economics, Languages and Archaeology, among many others.
Choosing your strand
A similar number of places is available on each subject strand, so please choose the subject that interests you the most. Priority for a place on a strand will be given to those who have selected it as their first choice, and students cannot be considered for strands other than those they have selected as their first or second choice.
The above strands also encompass other subjects, and below is some further advice on particular strands which might seem less clear, or if you aren't sure which one is right for you:
- Biological Sciences - for those interested in Biology and Chemistry
- Physical Sciences - for those interested in Physics and Chemistry, or Engineering
- Mathematics - also recommended for students interested in Economics or Computer Science, as these are courses with high mathematical content at university
- Social Sciences - this will cover areas such as Sociology and Politics (in line with the Human, Social and Political Sciences course that Cambridge teaches). It will also likely be of interest to those who enjoy Geography.
We encourage students to consider their choice of strand carefully and to think about subject areas that might be something you've not thought about before. Many subjects are interdisciplinary - they overlap with one another quite a bit - so for example, those interested in pursuing modern languages may therefore find any of English, History or the Social Sciences strands as interesting and relevant.
You can find out about all the different courses we offer at Cambridge here, and more about what they involve (there are over 30 courses covering 65 different subjects!).
Eligibility & Selection
Students must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible to apply for a place on the LPN summer school:
- You are currently in Year 11 (England and Wales), or Year 12 in Northern Ireland or S4 (Scotland), and would have been about to take your GCSEs or National 5s at a UK school that does not charge fees (to anyone) in summer 2021.
- You are going on to study academic qualifications for Sixth Form, at a school or college that does not charge fees (to anyone).
- academic qualifications are A-Levels, the International Baccalaureate, Pre-U or Highers/Advanced Highers.
- academic qualifications are A-Levels, the International Baccalaureate, Pre-U or Highers/Advanced Highers.
- You live in an area of low participation in higher education (you must check your postcode before applying!)
- To explain this a bit further, we use the POLAR classification and we only accept applications from students who live in quintile 1 or 2 areas. We encourage students to check if they are eligible to apply using this online postcode checker tool. When you put your postcode into the tool, check the 'POLAR4 quintile'. We have made a short guide to help you do so here: Checking your postcode.
- This is for your HOME postcode, not your school postcode.
- This is for your HOME postcode, not your school postcode.
- To explain this a bit further, we use the POLAR classification and we only accept applications from students who live in quintile 1 or 2 areas. We encourage students to check if they are eligible to apply using this online postcode checker tool. When you put your postcode into the tool, check the 'POLAR4 quintile'. We have made a short guide to help you do so here: Checking your postcode.
- You are on target to receive a majority of 9-7/A*-A grades at GCSE (or equivalent e.g. A grades in National 5s)
- Students applying for the Medicine strand as their first choice should expect to achieve a majority 8/9/A* grades at GCSE, due to the competitive nature of this strand
- It may be helpful to note that over the last three years (2018-20) most students who have been successful in obtaining a place on the LPN Summer School are usually expected to achieve 8/9/A* grades in GCSE subjects relevant to the strand applied for.
- You can provide the name and email address of a teacher who can support your application. You should discuss applying with a teacher before applying, and get their permission to provide their details to us.
We encourage applications from those who may be the first in their family to go to university (parents/carers did not attend university), a young carer, a refugee, from a BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) background, eligible for free school meals currently or in the past, have spent any time in care, or who are estranged from their family (i.e. you no longer have contact with your parents and may be living with another family member).
Selection will be primarily on the basis of academic merit, though other widening participation factors as outlined above will also be taken into consideration when deciding.
How to apply
When applications open, students will need to complete an online application form, and a nominated teacher will need to complete a separate form in support of their application, which they will receive a link to once we have received the student's application.
Applications for 2022 will open in spring 2022. If you (or your child/student) are in Year 11 (England & Wales - Year 12 Northern Ireland, S4 in Scotland) then you can register your interest for LPN 2022 by completing this short form. We will then email you once applications open.
Where can I get more information?
Please get in touch with us at access@christs.cam.ac.uk if you have any questions about this summer school.
Information for Teachers
We welcome teachers to get in touch if they would like help in identifying which students would be eligible for this event on the basis of the student's home postcode. We are able to run a set of postcodes through an online database to check whether they are in the eligible quintiles of the POLAR4 measure. This only takes us a few minutes to do and we will generally be able to get this back to you very quickly.
To do this, please email an Excel spreadsheet of the postcodes to check to Ellie at access@christs.cam.ac.uk. Postcodes must be full postcodes in the format AB12 3CD.
You may choose to do this with either:
- The list of postcodes of the whole cohort
- Only the postcodes of those who would meet the academic criteria
We do not require any other information than the postcode. You may like to include an identifier column e.g. a number or initials, or to list the postcodes alphabetically - whichever will help you to match it back to student names. In any case, the order of the postcodes in your list will remain the same as how you send them to us!
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