- Year 9 students at Bluecoat Wollaton have graduated from The Scholars Programme, run by education charity The Brilliant Club.
- The hard-working students produced challenging university-style essays exploring Going Global: the challenges and consequences of brain drain.
Bluecoat Wollaton is celebrating the success of 12 students as they graduate from The Scholars Programme, a national university access programme.
Year 9 students were encouraged to think and work independently across seven tutorials with a subject expert PhD researcher. During the programme, they learnt about global brain drain and the legacy of colonialism, and then completed a challenging final essay which was given a university-level grade.
The Scholars Programme, run by UK-wide university access charity The Brilliant Club, supports students aged 8-18 to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to progress to the country’s most competitive universities and succeed once there.
By bringing together two communities – PhD researchers and students – who might otherwise never interact with each other, young people can study innovative and inspiring topics that very few people have ever covered.
Beyond their graduation, these students have lots to look forward to because the programme has proven impact on university progression rates. For the fifth year running, independent UCAS evaluation has found that Scholars Programme graduates are almost twice as likely to progress to a competitive university compared with a group of students from similar backgrounds (44% vs. 28%).
Susie Whigham, Interim CEO at The Brilliant Club, congratulated the pupils on their achievements:
“Congratulations to these outstanding students as they graduate from The Scholars Programme. They join a community of over 90,000 young people who have taken part in The Brilliant Club since 2011.
“Completing their final assignments was no doubt challenging, but it has shown that these students have a passion for learning and the knowledge to produce university-style work already. I hope they use these new skills throughout their education and continue their fantastic work.”
