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Posted on March 6th 2018
Year 9 Get a Taste of University-Style Learning
Taliyah Lee, Year 9, reports on a new project at Harris Garrard Academy that gives students a real taste of university-style learning.
Brilliant Club is a programme that gives students the opportunity to study university level topics with a PhD research student. Currently the programme is offered to Year 9, but will also be available to a group of Year 7s next term. The programme enables us to develop analytical skills and gives us the determination and ambition to attend the best universities in the United Kingdom.
In November, we attended a launch trip at the University of Southampton – a Russell Group university. We were given a tour of the campus by two undergraduate students. We were able to see engineering laboratories, including the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. We then met our Brilliant Club tutors and took part in two workshops alongside students from other schools.
We have now begun our in school tutorials, in which we are studying ‘Tudor Royal Progresses’. Our tutorials are lead by Dr Dustin M. Neighbors who is an expert in Early Modern and Tudor England, especially Elizabeth I. As part of the programme we take part in seven tutorials, each lasting an hour. Following this, we write a 2,000 work assignment, which is graded by our tutor. For our graduation we will visit another university for our ‘graduation ceremony’.
Pictured top: Dr Neighbours with Elliott and Timothy, Year 9.
Picture bottom: Fauve and Oliver pore over an Elizabethan manuscript.
