Local pupils from across the city inspired at LJMU graduation

Pupils from across the city have engaged with a variety of LJMU projects to experience graduation first hand.  

LJMU’s summer graduations have taken place this week in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral and among the university students and graduates were primary and secondary school pupils from across the city region. 

Respect Always competition winners 

Seven children representing St George’s Primary School and St John Bosco Arts College, as the winners of the university’s Respect Always competition, attended Friday morning's ceremony and watched 300 students cross the stage to receive their degree awards.  

The pupils produced speeches about respect and created a TikTok video in order to win the LJMU Respect Always competition, which was borne out of LJMU’s own commitment to ensuring all of its staff, students and the wider LJMU community would always feel respected and to always respect others - through the Respect, Always initiative. 

Pupils Goodness and Chosen from St John Bosco Arts College wrote a speech about what respect means and why all people deserve respect. On attending the graduation, Year 10 student Goodness said: “I felt really excited watching the students graduate. I want to go to uni and study Fashion or Physics, so it was great to watch all the students cross the stage today.” 

Work Experience Placements 

Two Year 10 work experience students from Childwall Sports and Science Academy also joined the communications and events team for the week to experience working in marketing and events and gain valuable experience as to what it’s like to work and study at a university. 

Erica, age 15 and Evie age 14, took part in the work experience placement as part of LJMU’s Outreach and Diversity Inclusion team’s initiative to offer work experience opportunities across the university. 38 students are taking part in placements across the summer in various departments including Library Services, Human Resources, Liverpool Business School (Recruitment and Marketing), and the Faculty of Health.  

On working at LJMU graduation, helping the events team, and working on articles and social media posts for the communications team, Evie and Erica said: 

“It’s been great to talk to the different people across the university. The placement has made us consider coming to university when we're older. I feel like we've gained confidence and have practiced interviewing people, at first it was nerve-wracking as it’s something we’ve never done before, but we really enjoyed it.” 

Outreach at LJMU 

At LJMU we encourage the progression to higher education for anyone who wants to access it, regardless of background or social status. At the heart of LJMU’s outreach programmes is the University’s key values of providing transformational opportunities for all communities. Find out more about Outreach at LJMU.