Top-Tier Pre-College Fashion Summer Program For High Schoolers on Cambridge Arts School Campus

Course Description: Top-Tier Pre-College Fashion Summer Program For High Schoolers on Cambridge Arts School Campus

🎓 Course Overview

This two-week pre-college fashion summer course introduces students aged 14–18 to garment design and making at a specialist school of visual and performing arts in Cambridge, England. Working with industry professionals, students learn draping, pattern cutting, machine sewing, fashion illustration, fashion design and fabric manipulation, tackle design briefs on contemporary fashion and experience the fast-paced process of putting together a fashion show, guided by the team behind the school's annual Foundation fashion events.

📚 Academic Content

Students complete around 30 hours of specialist tuition per week (there are no English language lessons), in groups of 8 to 18. An intermediate level of English (equivalent to IELTS 5.0) is required, and a small portfolio is preferable.

Week One: Deconstruction & Draping

• Introduction to fashion design: what fashion design is, safe use of equipment and machinery, and portfolio and sketchbook basics.

• Sewing room: introduction to the sewing machines, machine practice, fabrics and materials, sewing seams and basic pattern-cutting principles.

• Draping & modelling: draping on the stand, photographing work, basic image manipulation and an introduction to mood boards.

• Deconstruction/reconstruction project: developing 2D and 3D ideas in the sketchbook, then finalising, photographing, annotating and sharing the project.

Week Two: Fashion Geometry Project

• Research & design: mood boards, annotation, primary and secondary research, designing with textiles and a collage workshop.

• Construction techniques: toiling and prototype construction, with demonstrations of invisible zips, the industrial overlocker, hem finishes, and bias and snap binding, plus a working-drawing workshop.

• Final outfit: students continue their prototype through to a finished outfit, then photograph, annotate and present their final project.

Students leave with a basic understanding of garment design and making, a portfolio of their work and a certificate. Completing the course can lead to progression onto the school's University of the Arts London (UAL) Extended Diploma or Foundation Diploma, subject to UAL entry criteria.

📍 Campus & Location

The programme takes place at a specialist school of visual and performing arts in the historic university city of Cambridge, England. Teaching takes place in purpose-built creative facilities, including theatres and dance studios with professional lighting and sound, open-plan art studios with high-spec iMacs, fashion workshops with garment-construction rooms and pattern-cutting stations, a photography studio, screen printing, sewing machines and print rooms. London is only about 50 minutes away by train, and the city's colleges are a short walk from the teaching campus.

🏫 Accommodation & Meals

Students stay in a residence on New Street in Cambridge, about a 20-minute walk from the city-centre campus and the city centre, with a bus stop at the top of the road served roughly every 10 minutes. Every student has a single bedroom with a private en-suite bathroom. Reception is staffed 24 hours a day, there is free WiFi and a common room, bedding is provided (towels are not), rooms are cleaned weekly and self-service laundry facilities are available. Supermarkets are within a 7–10 minute walk.

All canteen meals are included: breakfast, lunch and an evening meal served in the on-campus cafeteria, with a packed lunch on excursion days. Coeliac and other special diets, as well as halal food, are available on request.

🚌 Excursions & Activities

Every Saturday is a full-day excursion, mainly to London, with guided walks, a gallery or museum visit (for example the V&A, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum) and time for shopping; Southwold Beach is another possible destination. Excursions include transport, entry tickets and a packed lunch. Sunday is a free day.

Evenings run from 19:30 to 22:00 with a varied social programme, which in the published sample timetable includes the City View Ferris Wheel, bowling or rock climbing, a talent show, cinema, a disco, a selfie orienteering challenge, park social time, ice skating, punting on the river and a dance party. Evening activities and Saturday excursions are compulsory for students under 18.

⏰ A Day in the Life

On weekdays, breakfast is followed by a morning session from 08:00 to 12:00, lunch from 12:00 to 13:00, an afternoon session from 13:00 to 16:00, dinner from 16:30 to 18:00 and an evening activity from 19:30 to 22:00. Students arrive on a Sunday (arrival, induction and a campus tour), spend Saturday on a full-day excursion and Sunday as a free day, and depart on a Sunday.

• 08:00–12:00 — Morning: design, sewing-room or draping workshop

• 12:00–13:00 — Lunch

• 13:00–16:00 — Afternoon: pattern cutting, prototype construction or project development

• 16:30–18:00 — Dinner

• 19:30–22:00 — Evening activity, such as cinema, ice skating or punting

2027 Dates & Fees 📅

This is a residential programme. Courses start on a Sunday and finish with departure on a Sunday. Fees are quoted in pounds sterling (GBP) and include tuition, single en-suite accommodation, meals, excursions and activities.

• Sunday 27 June – Sunday 11 July — Length: 2 weeks — Residential: £4,025

• Sunday 11 July – Sunday 25 July — Length: 2 weeks — Residential: £4,025

• Sunday 25 July – Sunday 8 August — Length: 2 weeks — Residential: £4,025

The fashion course is offered as a two-week programme only; no one-week option is published. Deposit, transfer and insurance details are not published on the course page and should be confirmed at booking.

✔️ What's Included

Around 30 hours of specialist fashion tuition per week with industry professionals, a single en-suite room in the residence, all canteen meals (with a packed lunch on excursion days), one full-day excursion per week with transport and entry tickets, the evening activity programme, WiFi, weekly room cleaning, a portfolio and a certificate on completion.

Not included: travel to and from Cambridge, airport transfers, towels and personal spending money.

🛡️ Safety & Welfare

Dedicated Student Welfare Officers are available throughout the school day for pastoral, hygiene and medical needs, and there is on-site medical provision at the residential centre. The residence has 24-hour staffed reception and aims to balance supervision with age-appropriate independence. Centres are chosen for their safe environments, staff are trained in emergency procedures, and every student receives an induction on arrival. Younger learners benefit from 24-hour support and clear safeguarding procedures, and attendance at evening activities and Saturday excursions is compulsory for under-18s.

💡 Who This Programme Is For

This course suits 14–18-year-olds with at least intermediate English who are interested in fashion design and garment making, from curious beginners to students building a portfolio. It is ideal for those considering further study in fashion or art and design, offering hands-on studio experience with industry professionals, a finished outfit to take home and weekly trips to London's galleries and museums.

Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts — Google Maps ↗

13, 14 Round Church St, Cambridge CB5 8AD, United Kingdom Google Maps ↗