Summer schools

The Chemistry Summer School will run from Monday 7 to Friday 11 July 2025, based in the Franklin-Wilkins Building (SE1 9NH) by Waterloo station. This free, non-residential summer school is the perfect opportunity for you to take your chemistry to the next level.

Through lab sessions in which you will chemically create your own sunscreens, you will develop your hands-on lab skills and understand what it’s like to be working in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory. You'll creating your own sunscreen, and study its properties using lab techniques such as infrared (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, as well as testing the effect of chemical structure on UV absorption.

You will develop your communication skills as a student scientist in sessions on creating a research-focused poster and presenting your work. Finally, you will showcase your research to the other participants, King’s academics, and chemistry students in a poster presentation competition. We’ll invite your teachers and families to this as well, to experience the campus and see your work first-hand!

This opportunity is open to students who:

• are in Year 12,
• intend to study chemistry in year 13,
• attend a non-fee-paying school, and
• have been unable to access similar opportunities elsewhere.

Students who complete the summer school and who meet the eligibility criteria can request a contextual offer to study chemistry at King’s College London. That means if you apply to study chemistry here, and we make you an offer, your offer is likely to be two grades lower than our standard offer. You can find out more about contextualised admissions at King’s here.

You can apply for a place on this programme by filling out this application form.

Applications close Friday 16 May 23:59. We will notify successful applicants by Friday 23 May.