RICHMOND SIXTH FORM COLLEGE STUDENTS GRADUATE FROM THE BRILLIANT CLUB
15 May 2024 | Sven Wardle | Posted in: News
Fourteen Year 12 students have been rewarded with some fantastic results after completing the prestigious Brilliant Club Scholars’ Programme. The students all graduated with outstanding grades for their final assignments.
The Brilliant Club is a charity that recruits, trains and places doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in state colleges to deliver courses of university-style tutorials based on their own area of expertise, with the aim of increasing the number of students progressing to highly-selective universities.
The results of the initiative speak for themselves, with Scholars Programme graduates being almost twice as likely to progress to leading Russell Group universities. The students are not only recognised for successfully managing the additional academic rigour of the programme alongside their A-level studies but also developing the invaluable skills required for university study.
The students worked with Gordon Duffy-McGhie, their PhD tutor, who supported them throughout the project, “The Robots Are Coming”. We reported in more detail about this year’s programme back in February. The article is here:
https://tinyurl.com/BrilliantClub2024
Sandra Johnson, Assistant Headteacher, who coordinates the Brilliant Club initiatives, cannot praise the scheme highly enough, saying, “It is a great way for students to get a feeling and understanding of the step up to university-style learning and the skills they need to develop to succeed. All our students who have graduated from the Scholars Programme have benefitted hugely from the experience and it has certainly helped them stand out in their university applications.
“We are really proud of their achievements and believe that this success will continue to impact positively on their studies and their potential for the future. We are extremely grateful to Uni Connect who funded the programme for us.
”We were delighted to attend a graduation ceremony at Durham University which included a tour of the colleges and campus as well as information, advice and guidance about applying to university. Cameron Smith and Tom Whitehead were spoke-scholars at the ceremony and talked eloquently about their experience on the programme. Cameron said, “The Scholars programme gave us the opportunity to get a taste of university style essay writing and key referencing skills which will help us in our further education. The experience of learning about the rise of intelligent machines and the ethics around them, a completely unfamiliar topic, was an exciting prospect.The tour around Durham gave us key insights into everyday life and the amazing facilities that we could use if we attended. I’m much more likely to attend Durham University after this trip and I hope that The Brilliant Club will enable me to achieve great things after college.”
The students presented Gordon with a “thank you” gift and a card, designed and made by Freya Cutter – see photo.
We look forward to welcoming our next cohort of students into The Brilliant Club next year!