This document analyzes the outcomes of a residential camp held at Hampton Court Palace in 2012 aimed at inspiring students and increasing attainment in subjects like math, English, science, drama, history, PE and design technology. Assessment results showed significant improvements in all subjects, with math scores increasing by 11-41% and over 75% of students achieving or exceeding their English targets. Students reported that being in the historic environment of the palace provided inspiration and motivation that helped them learn and concentrate more than they do in a typical school setting. The partnership between the school and Hampton Court Palace was deemed an educational success and one that will continue in the future.

1. Hampton Court Palace 2013
A Canterbury Academy residential for the Paul
Hamlyn Foundation’s Learning Away programme

2. Context
We deliver a residential camp in the grounds of Hampton Court
Palace.
The objective is to engage with the Palace and its grounds to
inspire learners to increase attainment in curriculum subjects at
level 2.
Immersion within the historical environment combined with the
social context of positivity creates results. This is an analysis of
the outcomes from our 2012 camp.

3. Assessment
Students were assessed before and after the sessions using the
same assessment.
No baseline assessment feedback was given to students in order
that all progress could be directly attributed to the activities of
the week.
The questions were multiple choice, allowing results to be
collected during the lesson using the Promethean Activ Pods.
Progress was calculated as the students packed away at the end
of the lesson and immediately shared with the students to
demonstrate their progress.

5. Maths
• The sessions and assessment topics were split into 3 sections,
directly attributable to GCSE outcomes: Pythagoras, Ratio and
Area.
• The ‘pre-assessment’ results showed that on average the
students got 22% of the Pythagoras questions correct. It also
showed that in general, the students had a good knowledge
of ratio questions before the residential’s maths sessions.

6. Maths
TOPIC Pythagoras Ratio Area
PRE-ASSESSMENT 22% 54% 23%
POST-ASSESSMENT 63% 65% 57%
IMPROVEMENT 41% 11% 34%
These three topics are normally taught over a period of at least a term.
Just three lessons run in the context of the themed residential resulted in similar if
not better results than would have been expected over the course of a standard
programme of learning.

8. English
By the end of the five day residential, 75% of learners had
achieved or bettered their end of year target.
In English, 45% of the 77 learners improved by at least 1 sub-level
over the course of the residential.

10. Science
69% of learners made progress in every area.
90% of a low ability group who had no previous level 2
achievement attained at least 1 GCSE grade C.

12. Drama
6 of the 9 learners improved by 1 GCSE grade.
77% of learners achieved grade C or above.
Key areas of improvement included:
– working with others
– verbal feedback
– confidence.

13. History
60% of learners improved by 1 GCSE grade or more.
42% of learners improved by 2 GCSE grades or more.
The majority of students showed a high level of engagement in
their surrounding and demonstrated a superior understanding of
the sources than before.

16. PE
All 12 pupils improved their scores after reassessment.
66% improved their score by 100% or more.

18. DT
All nine learners improved their scores over the course of the
residential.
56% of learners improved their score by 100% or more.

19. Conclusion
“I wouldn’t normally be in school until about 10.30am and the
trip has made me realise that I need my education - I enjoy
education, I enjoy learning…” Year 10 learner
“I mess about in lessons, but that’s because I’ve got nothing that
helps me concentrate, there’s no inspiration at school. When I
was at Hampton Court there was just loads of stuff to inspire
me… I probably did more hours of work in that one week than I
did in the whole of this term, I just had so much inspiration from
it.” Year 10 learner

20. The partnership with Hampton Court Palace was a pleasure and
an honour to develop:
• The academic outcomes are outstanding.
• The reflections of the learners are of a life long memory and
inspirational experience.
• Staff have developed new relationships and skills.
This is a partnership we will be developing in the future.