Brilliant pupils visit dreaming spires of Oxford for university ‘graduation’ day
Brilliant Year 9 pupils have been encouraged and inspired to aim high in their future university and career aspirations with a visit to the University of Oxford.
The city is known for its ‘dreaming spires’ and the motivational and aspirational education trip saw the pupils given a tour around the awe-inspiring surroundings of New College.
The clever students are all members of The Brilliant Club, an award-winning non-profit charity. The Brilliant Club aims to widen access to and increase the number of pupils from under-represented backgrounds progressing to highly-selective universities by mobilising the PhD community to share its expertise with non-selective schools.
The pupils visited New College to celebrate their graduation from The Brilliant Club’s Scholars Programme, in which doctoral and postdoctoral researchers delivered six academic tutorials to pupils. The programme also entailed studying and research projects that led to the completion of a 2,000-word final assignment on either an arts, humanities or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) topic. Assignments are marked by Oxford PhD tutors and given a university style grade. Lessons are designed to be challenging by being a full key stage above the level the students are studying in school.
Year 9 pupil Sedra Afzali said:
“The experiences and knowledge we have gained through The Brilliant Club have been amazing and it has given me something really fantastic to put on my CV to set me apart from other prospective university students. Our visit to the University of Oxford was very inspiring and gave us a flavour of what it might be like to study there. I feel really motivated now and know that with hard work and determination I too may be lucky enough to attend.”
Principal Shahina Ahmad said:
“The University of Oxford trip was truly inspiring for our girls who have worked so hard as members of The Brilliant Club. It requires a great deal of commitment, focus, time, organisation, research and motivation on the part of our students. The trip fully met our STAR values and created an ambition and fire in them to succeed. We have high aspirations for our pupils and want to inspire and encourage them to aim high towards a whole new world of opportunities that they can achieve.
“There are some who may think that the University of Oxford is out of reach but we firmly believe that our pupils are the brightest and best, with strong academic potential. The visit has really enabled them to understand that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.”
Daniel Powell, Head of Outreach for New College, said:
“We were delighted to welcome the pupils from Eden Girls’ School to New College. There are excellent students at schools around the country who do not think Oxford is right for them – as a College and as a University, we are committed to changing that. Working with The Brilliant Club to give students an idea of what it might be like to study here is one way that we seek to do that, along with our own Step Up programme (www.new.ox.ac.uk/step-up) . Congratulations to all of the Eden students on their graduation!”
PUPILS from Eden Girls’ School, Waltham Forest have graduated from The Brilliant Club at the University of Oxford’s New College
Added By: Star Academies | Date Added: 20th Feb 2019 | Posted In: Latest News