Like all good things, Session 5 in St Catz came to an end yesterday―and students and staff alike were eager and ready to see the experience out in style. After the last day of lessons, in which students drew their chosen subjects to a close and thanked their teachers for their guidance and challenging tuition over the past two weeks, it was time for an elegant and convivial dinner in the atmospheric Catz dining hall. Students savoured the experience of breaking bread in this fine hall with their classmates for the last time, and spoke excitedly about the party that would come later that evening.

Well-fed and in the celebratory mood, students processed into the Catz auditorium to attend the formal graduation ceremony. Programme Director Dennis gave a heartfelt and inspiring speech, detailing some of the highlights of the fortnight, and wishing all students well before presenting each of them with a graduation scroll. Some students were singled out particularly for their effort and achievement in class over the course of the session. A special whoop went to Laura Jane Baxter, in whose victory in the Great ORA Debate on scientific research our Catz staff and students were still glorying.

Despite the now-cooling British summer, our Catz students journeyed to the seaside―or the very close approximation of it that awaited them in the campus marquee. Students donned flower garlands and lolled (in both senses of the word) in gigantic deck chairs, enjoying typical seaside treats such as ice-cream and candy-floss, and socialising with their ORA friends in Queen’s college who had joined them for the evening. Then, bathed in a pinkish glow, students took to the dancefloor, where they spent the rest of the evening, before heading back to their rooms for some much-needed rest ahead of an emotional departures day!