In the realm of university destinations, social mobility is at a standstill. Teacher and Head of Higher Education Lucy Hemsley explores a scheme to bring the university experience to life for a wider range of pupils well before it is time to apply.

Simply brilliant!

The year 2015 was a record-breaker: UCAS figures show that more 18 year-olds applied to university in the UK than ever before.

Yet in spite of this overall rising trend, students from state schools are far less likely to go on to higher education than their private school peers. Just 36% of state school pupils enrolled at university compared with 96% from the fee-paying sector.

At the most selective universities, the figures are even more stark: 48% of private school students gain a place at a top university, compared to just 18% from state schools, plummeting to a mere 2% of those eligible for free school meals. In the realm of university destinations, social mobility is at a standstill.

I asked myself whether I could do more to tackle this destinations gap, one that the Sutton Trust has often documented. I have put in place a number of initiatives from Year 9 upwards, and I know that the percentage of our students going to Russell Group universities is above average for non-selective state schools. But I wondered: was Year 9 early enough to have an impact on children’s and parents’ attitudes to university? Could we do more?

Why The Brilliant Club?

It was only when I read Ofsted’s 2015 report on the most able students, an update on progress since the first report in 2013, that I heard about The Brilliant Club, a charity that seeks to challenge the under-representation of certain groups at highly selective universities. Their Scholars Programme sends university PhD researchers to schools to deliver university-style seminars to small groups of students, of whom at least a third must have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years.

They offer a number of academically challenging arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes for students from Years 6 to 12 that are pitched and marked (by the PhD tutors) at a key stage above their current level. Students take part in five one-hour tutorials in school and are set homework, building towards a final written assignment (1,500 words for Years 7 and 8).

As part of their programme, students visit two top universities. At the second visit, students ‘graduate’ (complete with mortarboard!) and parents are invited wherever possible.

We decided to get involved because of its potential for raising aspirations by giving some of our youngest students an authentic experience of top universities. For us, Year 8 seemed a good year to target: post-transition but pre-options. The Brilliant Club seemed an excellent way of using Pupil Premium funding for our most able students from lower-socio economic groups, something that Ofsted says does not happen often enough.

When he was Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove praised the programme as “a great way to raise aspiration and attainment … Indeed, the Pupil Premium was introduced to ensure that targeted programmes like The Brilliant Club are made available,” he said.

The nuts and bolts

The Scholars Programme accommodates 12 students at a time (divided into two groups of six for tutorials), for Key Stages 2 to 4 pupils. For Key Stage 5 groups, there is a cohort of eight pupils (two groups of four).

We launched the programme by inviting students to write a letter of application and were overwhelmed by the response. By asking students to apply, I feel that our students engaged with the programme more positively than if they had just been selected.

We opted for two cohorts in the autumn and spring terms: one arts course in philosophy (‘Do the ends justify the means?’), which was taught by a senior politics lecturer from the University of Warwick, and a STEM course in maths (‘Could the stars float in the bath?’), taught by a PhD maths student from the University of Bristol. Both programmes extended far beyond the normal curriculum, certainly conforming to the ‘super-curricular’ learning that both Oxbridge and other Russell Group universities are increasingly demanding.

A taste of university

A real strength of The Brilliant Club is that it not only brings university learning into schools, it takes school students into universities. Both of our cohorts had an initial trip to the University of Oxford, where, as well as having their first tutorial, they toured a college, spoke to current students and took part in a study skills session. As teachers, we also had an information, advice and guidance (IAG) session from an admissions tutor about other ways to support and encourage Oxford applications.

Our graduation was at the University of Warwick and was the perfect celebration for students’ completion of the programme. Parents, half of whom had never been to a university before, had a campus tour with their children and attended a parent/child IAG session run by the university, as well as a session on speaking academically.

The ceremony itself took the format of a university graduation, with a keynote speaker before a procession to collect certificates. In short, a truly inspirational day for both children and parents.

What’s the impact?

The Brilliant Club produces a detailed report for each cohort that makes it easy to quantify the impact on student attainment and aspirations. Our second cohort is yet to graduate, but our first excelled in the written assignment with all students achieving either an ‘excellent’ standard for Year 9 or ‘good’ GCSE standard. Moreover, 100% of our students have said that they now aspire to study at a top university. Beyond the statistics, the impact on our students is evident when you speak to them.

“Visiting the universities made me want to start considering where I should go. I learnt a lot about how universities worked and what they were like. I now know how important it is to get the best education you can at the best places” – Max, Year 8

“I am more confident with myself and I feel that I can work hard and don’t care what others think of me” – Hannah, Year 8

It has been widely shown how key a role parents play in influencing children’s decisions on whether and where to apply to university and The Brilliant Club has also allowed us to engage earlier with parents in this respect than we would normally.

On the graduation trip, all of the adults praised the programme, telling me how their children discussed it at home far more than they would with normal homework and how they articulated their future options with greater knowledge and confidence. One parent of a student in receipt of the Pupil Premium told me how her daughter now wants to apply to Oxford and that it has made her more motivated at school. Above all, parents were keen to thank us for taking part in the initiative.

Bournside was the first school in Gloucestershire to get involved with The Brilliant Club, which currently works with nearly 400 schools across the country. It is too early for us to be able to claim that this programme will lead to more of our students making applications to top universities but the impact on their aspirations and attainment is tangible. Consequently, we will be continuing with the programme next year.

To me, it is exactly through well-planned initiatives like this that we can begin to tackle truly the university destinations gap.

The Brilliant Club

If you would like to discuss how the programme could work at your school and how to get involved, please email hello@thebrilliantclub.org and find out more online at www.thebrilliantclub.org

Lucy Hemsley is Head of Higher Education and Upper Ability Provision at Cheltenham Bournside School and Sixth Form Centre.

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