Facilitating Academic Work

As well as providing residential accommodation for students, which could be labelled 'student welfare', NEA has always pursued an active interest in the academic work of the residents of its centres. It has sought to provide suitable conditions for them to work successfully, such as a study room and library in each centre, computer rooms with email internet access, and opportunities for them to talk about their work with others. The last mentioned has taken the form of postgraduate discussion groups at which participants take turns to talk about their own research fields.  

The programme of Guest Speakers and Recitals at Netherhall House has continued throughout the year.

Residential study or reading weeks are organised, such as Kelston's annual Easter study week for GCSE and A level students at Greygarth Hall in Manchester. Kelston and Westpark also joined forces for a pre-exam revision week at Kelston in the May half-term. By working to a timetable, which includes breaks and some sport, the students find they can do eight hours of intense revision each day, undisturbed by the usual distractions of home.  

At Grandpont House, many residents have been involved over the years in postgraduate academic research. During the year 2000, one of the residents completed a doctoral thesis on Newman and Education, while other residents published papers in academic journals.

As well as providing a well-used study room, Kelston also organised a short study skills course in May 2001 and gave help with academic subjects, the skills of the club leaders making this possible in most subjects.

UNIV

One of the traditions of NEA has been annual participation in the international UNIV conference for students held at Easter in Rome since 1968. We have managed to send a delegation every year since it started and very often they have been involved in making presentations to the conference. From NEA's point of view, our UNIV participation is a joint activity of all our centres. At Easter of both 2000 and 2001, a sizeable group went from Netherhall House and, as well as attending the conference, they were able to spend Holy Week in Rome, visiting the many places of historical interest and participating in the Easter Vigil at St Peter's Basilica, led by Pope John Paul II. Earlier in the year, Grandpont House organised a pre-UNIV meeting, which has also become an annual event, providing a forum for discussing the topic of each year's UNIV conference. This has meant that students who are unable to make the journey to Rome can still make a contribution to this international meeting of students from countries all over the world. At this pre-UNIV meeting, speakers from the Universities of Oxford and Warwick dealt with the topic of globalisation, following the previous year's discussion on sport and media studies within the University curriculum.

Study rooms

Each of the NEA centres has a study room and library. Often these have started as bare rooms with a few rickety tables and chairs, and little by little we have upgraded them, aiming to create an environment conducive to serious study. Netherhall House has the largest study room, which was built as part of the 1960s development. All the students have study bedrooms, so a study room would appear to be redundant, but in fact it is heavily used around exam time when many residents prefer to study together for the long hours of revision. It also comes into its own in the context of Netherhall's outreach, as non-resident students can come to use the study facilities and to take a part in the life of the hall. Kelston's study room is small and often gets crowded, so the students have to overflow into other rooms in the house. The next stage of Kelston's development will see the setting up of a larger study room as part of a new study centre area for Vth and VIth formers, while retaining a club study room for the younger boys. Kelston's library has been carefully stocked, with a section of popular GCSE and A level reference books for all the main subjects, a section of encyclopedias and dictionaries, and a large selection of novels which can be taken out on loan. Westpark's study room was set up in 1996 and was successful in creating an environment conducive to study. This is also true of Dunreath's study room in Glasgow, which has the added bonus of a well-stocked library catering for both university students and schoolboys.

Skills for life

NEA has always believed in encouraging people to seek a broader education beyond the confines of their academic discipline. This is why Netherhall House has for many years run a full programme of guest speakers and, more recently, of recitals too. Other activities such as desert island discs are an opportunity for a resident to speak about his own country, and visits to museums and galleries in London or to places like Oxford, Cambridge and Canterbury are organised so that the students can take in the rich cultural heritage of England.

The other centres offer a similarly rich programme. Kelston, this year, ran evening sessions on astronomy and volcanoes, organised parliamentary debates for both the Senior and Study Centre age groups, and invited university students to get together with a group of sixth formers and talk about life at university. A highlight was a session on interviews by psychologist, Michael Moore, who reversed the roles and asked a group of sixth formers to interview him for a place at University. Having stood in the shoes of the interviewer, they then reversed the roles again the following week and were interviewed themselves, now a little more confident for the experience. This and other Kelston activities, such as film-making, are also good opportunities to develop presentational and inter-personal skills, and an ability for creative and lateral thinking, all so useful in professional life.