See what Lyra, a Year 10 student, has to say about a typical visit day at Peterhouse below.

As we strolled through the charming gardens, we walked into a fancy room with refreshments on a side table. A woman walked in and announced herself as the outreach officer. “We are so honoured to have you here today! Welcome to Peterhouse!”.

When we sat down she announced that we were doing a quiz. While it was hard it actually was really fun, but we got a tad competitive. It was about Cambridge and universities, and we learnt so much - like a typical course is 3 years, Cambridge University is 814 years old, and Peterhouse is the oldest college, and there are over 8 million books in the University Library.

Receiving the first lecture in this beautiful lecture theatre was incredible. We talked about the experiences, the opportunities, and all the niche courses, such as Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, or Theology. It was so interesting and entertaining! We learned a lot especially about opportunities, money, and experiences, and this was only the first lecture.

After the break we talked about student life and types of universities. They are campus, city, and collegiate. The colleges in a collegiate university provide: accommodation, dining hall, library, sports facilities, pastoral support, and clubs and societies. Peterhouse is one of the smallest colleges, with only 80 students per year. There are also clubs and societies such as the Assassins Guild, DJ society, and bubble tea society. There is also monetary help and physical help for people with disabilities or who are neurodivergent.

We then heard from some student ambassador who were all first years. They talked about the food in Peterhouse and gave some tips such as bring snacks in the first/seconds week so you can bribe people to be friends with you!  

We then had lunch and after a nice lunch we went on a tour, starting with the library. It was very old fashioned, very beautiful, and very elegant. We then went to the common room, bar and gym and saw Gibson court, the newer of the two courts. There were lots of pretty flowers and blossoms around. We also saw the chapel, dining hall (the oldest secular building in Europe still used for its original purpose) and St Peters terrace, which was built in the 1700s, and it’s the main building for first year accommodation.

After a quick break, we headed back into the lecture theater and started to learn about A-levels. We learnt how to pick our A-levels, and at the end of the last lecture we were told to explore the subjects we want to take in sixth form, such as read books or listen to them. Overall it was an amazing trip; thank you so much Peterhouse! Cheers for letting me write this article!