This year, the school will be taking part in an Academic Access initiative called the Scholars Programme, run by the educational charity ‘The Brilliant Club’. On Tuesday 5th November, 16 eager and willing students were escorted by Mr Bowie to Christ College, Cambridge University for the launch trip of the programme. 

The launch trip allowed students to meet their PhD tutors, and attend taught skill sessions, as well as a tour of the campus and lunch in the great hall! The programme is delivered by trained PhD students in the form of 4 in school tutorials. The tutorials follow a course which has been designed by the PhD student around their own, cutting-edge research, and are designed to push the students to develop the academic skills they will need to secure places at highly selective universities. Students finish the course by producing an extended essay assignment, which is marked at university level and given a university-style grade (1^st, 2.1 etc.), along with extensive feedback from their tutor to allow them to reflect on and improve their performance.