Richard Garner wrote a two page feature on our summer schools for the Independent

In 1998, a small group of teenagers gathered at Cambridge University to find out whether the university was for them. The group had all been recruited from schools in disadvantaged areas, and they were there as the result of a campaign by the millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl through his charity, The Sutton Trust. The aim was to try to open up access to the UK’s elite universities to those who – along with their schools – might never have thought they could aspire to a place in one of them.

I was in on the start of the scheme. Sir Peter enlisted the help of the paper I was then working for, the Daily Mirror, which printed a coupon along the lines of: “If you think a course at Cambridge could be for you, fill this in and find out.”

As a result, 25 Mirror readers’ children arrived at Cambridge for the first summer school of its kind to help talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aim for the top. As a result, four of them were granted places at Cambridge the following year.

From little acorns… Lee Elliot Major, from the Sutton Trust, now reckons that close on 1,000 students from disadvantaged areas have got into Cambridge after being helped along by this route.

Read the full feature here

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