It’s been a landmark year for our Charity this year. It’s 10 years since our founder Paul Coupar-Hennessy set out to inspire and nurture intellectual curiosity in state school pupils from across Yorkshire and the North of England. Paul took just 14 students down to Trinity Hall College for the Stepping Stones residential summer school that year as part of our very first Reach Higher Programme. This year, we supported 111 young people on the Programme, and we celebrated our 10th year with our very first residential summer school at St John’s College, having outgrown our traditional home. 

The Reach Higher Programme itself has gone from strength to strength since its very first iteration. We now have a successful Welcome Event at the University of Leeds in its third consecutive year, an emerging partnership with John Snow College at Durham University, and an academic taster day at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 2024, we carried out our most extensive Programme review to date with partner schools and stakeholders. As a result, we produced our very first ever Education Policy, and we have identified that breadth, depth and communication areas in which our support makes a difference to the young people we work with, and these educational cornerstones will continue to characterise the Reach Higher Programme as it develops. 

What continues to be clear, however, is that this personalised and intensive support works. We were absolutely delighted that 12 out of 15 students holding offers with Oxbridge won places this year, our highest rate ever, and this continues to be an area in which we can make a real impact to the educational outcomes of young people in state schools across Yorkshire, alongside the support we offer to those targeting any ‘highly selective’ university.

In terms of the Charity more broadly, 2024 saw the arrival of a brand new Chair of Trustees, Dr Beth Reynaert, and we waved goodbye to both Lydia Jackson and Matthew Gursky, two members of our alumni who have done so much to support the Charity over recent years. Amidst this change, however, our vision and mission remain consistent with those established on 23rd April 2014. We continue to normalise aspiration and exceptional achievement through our summer school programmes and personalised mentoring support, and there is still a supportive community of curiosity in which these young people can belong and thrive.

This summer in Cambridge, we invited members of our alumni to join us and share their stories of Linacre from across the years. It was inspiring to meet so many young people from the various chapters of the Linacre story, including members of that very first cohort from 2014, and witness the significance the Charity continues to hold for them after all these years. I very much look forward to sharing some of these stories with you as part of our 10th birthday film. 

Our ambitious strategic plan also expires at the end of this year, and we have had the opportunity to reflect on our successful growth as we returned to in-person activity following the pandemic, moving from a programme of just 30 to 100. Going forward, it will also be important to consider how we might deepen and sustain our engagement with existing students whilst we continue to grow our programmes. 

Finally, I want to share an exciting opportunity to support the Charity in 2025. We’re very proud to support young people from across Yorkshire. To showcase the very best our county has to offer, and celebrate the end of our 10th birthday year, we’ve teamed up with Lupine Adventure to take on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge on 31st May 2025. 

If you’re looking for something to get your teeth into in 2025, why not sign up for this iconic Yorkshire challenge and help raise some money for our charity along the way. There’s simply no better way to come together and share stories than a long day out in the Yorkshire hills!!

Please register your interest via the online form below before the 31st of January 2025, and we will be in touch with more details in due course, including how to raise money for the Charity via our Enthuse fundraising platform.

Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge 2025

We hope that as many of our supporters as possible will get involved to make this a really special event to mark the end of a special year.

Until then, I wish you all a restful holiday season and thank you once again for your support this year.

With warm thanks and very best wishes,

Dr Matthew John

Director of the Linacre Institute