ACS students are brilliant!

BY ARMAAN 10X

Twenty-four students, twelve from year 9 and twelve from year 10, were chosen to experience the Scholars Programme. This is run by The Brilliant Club who aim to work with students from inner-city schools from students from under-represented backgrounds.

This programme allows high school students to experience university style studying. The start to this journey was a trip to King’s College London. At the university, students were given a tour around the building and introduced to the ‘lecture style’ teaching method. Students were then allowed to sit in on a lecture and then introduced to the PhD tutor they would be working closely with for this project.

There were a series of small group university-style tutorials at different timings for the two year groups. The theme of the year 10 course was pandemic disease in history. Some of the diseases included madness and obesity! At the end of the six sessions, students were required to write an essay on their chosen disease and how it has changed through history. The PhD tutor, Angharad Fletcher, was very encouraging and helped students to collect the sources and other materials to include in the essays.

At the end of this unique journey, all the students graduated and two of them even spoke about their essays in front of all other participants of the Scholars Programme. They graduated at one of the prestigious colleges of Oxford University, St. Anne's. At the graduation trip, students were told in more detail about the university lifestyle and how to apply to university. Students were also told of the benefits of getting a degree. Equipped with new knowledge, students arrived at school ready to apply what they learned to other subjects that they study.