For the best part of ten years, I knew I had been failing.
Failing to engage the parents of young people on the outreach and widening participation programmes I ran. I had tried so many different approaches and nothing seemed to work.
It became a point of guilt and a source of frustration.
I thought back to my own experience of higher education as a first-generation student and remembered clearly the moment my own Mum, Judy, had said “it’s ok, I understand how it works now” and how everything felt much more possible from that day on. I started to see a pattern of families in my hometown getting in touch for help with their university applications.
