The Brilliant Club
Our brilliant students excel in top challenge
Twelve of our most academically able year 7 and year 8 students have been taking part in a three month project with The Brilliant Club www.thebrilliantclub.org. The purpose of the Brilliant Club is to offer school pupils access to University style teaching by way of lectures, seminars and tutorials with PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, with the explicit aim of giving the participating students the confidence to apply to the most academically selective universities in the country.
The opening ceremony and initial tutorial took place at Royal Holloway, University of London, where we were treated to a tour of the beautiful campus and students met their PhD tutor for the first time. Royal Holloway College is a ‘research intensive’ University and Nova Hreod Academy is very proud to be collaborating with them. During the tutorial session students were introduced to their assignment topic and set their first piece of homework! The students found their tutor to be very helpful and encouraging and they all felt that they had the chance to express their opinions. They will be completing a university standard piece of work and learning new skills that will help to improve their levels in their school work.
Students said:
“I am looking forward to learning lots of different things we wouldn’t learn in secondary school”
“I’m happy to be learning something to help me improve right now”
“It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed interacting with my group”
“I’m looking forward to learning new skills to bring up my levels”
Update 13th March 2015
This week our Brilliant Club students engaged in an in-depth discussion about freedom fighters and terrorists, looking at the differences between the two and how opinions can change over time. A large part of the tutorial was focused on accepting other people‘s opinions and the students were fantastic at speaking out in turn with their own views.
Paige from Year 8 said – “I think it‘s really good because it‘s helping towards our future and is challenging us. I‘m really pleased that I was chosen as I think that taking part in the scholars programme will help to improve my writing skills and how to express my opinion. The homework is a challenge to write at university level but is good because it helps us prepare for the next tutorial session.”
Update 20th March 2015
On the scholars’ agenda this week was a philosophical discussion based on understanding consequentialism and deontology. Students demonstrated superb high level thinking and their use of language to express their opinions was astounding! Their tutor is particularly impressed with the group and the standard of homework being submitted each week.
Hope from Year 7 said: “I really enjoyed it this week, even more than last week. I feel comfortable that no one will judge me on what I say, I’m usually quite shy but I feel that I can speak freely about my opinion. I’m really enjoying taking part and think it will lead on to a better future for me.”
Update 15th May 2015
Last week we welcomed our PhD tutor from The Brilliant Club one last time to deliver feedback to the students following completion of their assignments. Each student received a personalised report detailing what they did well and how they could improve in the future. We are very proud that the majority of students achieved a 2:1 which means their work was at a very good standard at GCSE level; years ahead for their age! We are also extremely pleased to congratulate Year 7‘s Kalan, who received a 1st for his outstanding piece of work!
Update 21st May 2015 – Graduation Day
On Saturday 16th May our students enjoyed a rewarding graduation day at the University of Sussex. Luckily the sun was shining as parents, grandparents and siblings accompanied us to an information session followed by a tour of the campus before the official ceremony began.
There was an enormous sense of pride as our students’ names were read out before they went to collect their certificates, at which point the crowd cheered and whooped in congratulation! Two of the Year 7 students even passed with distinctions; congratulations to Hope who received a Distinction for Effort and Jay who received a Distinction for Attainment. The day was thoroughly enjoyable for all and was a great way to celebrate this fantastic achievement for our students!
Update 16th June 2015 - Student work published on website
We have published (below) the final essay produced by one of our Year 7 Brilliant Club students, together with the detailed feedback from the tutor, which demonstrates the high quality of work completed by the students on the programme.
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