The Scholars Programme

The Brilliant Club is a charity that aims to increase fair access to highly selective Universities. The following Ryedale School students have participated in The Scholars Programme, via the Brilliant Club; Kaitlyn Yates, Oliver Rayner, Will Ponthus, Finley Mannion-Watson, Katie Mullaney, Maddy Gordan-Finlayson, Phoebe Parsons, Katie Dargan, Charlotte Hickman, Lucas Duncan, Isla McClanachan and Isaac Thompson.

The Scholars Programme included a day visit to the University of Sheffield, as well as six tutorial sessions, discussing content, analysis of sources and the development of skills expected when writing a University style essay. In addition to this the students were set six additional homework tasks, which involved reading up on events, theories and concepts to discuss in the next tutorial. Finally, students were expected to write a 2000 word essay complete with bibliography, samples of which are below.

The topic that students studied was a degree level History topic and all students wrote essays on the following title; “Divergent ethnicities cannot live peacefully in times of economic depression”: to what extent does this statement explain the causes of the 1919 Seaport Riots?

The students involved have performed fantastically and have achieved a great deal from the programme. They attended a Graduation ceremony at Durham University, developed their independence, resilience, organisation and essay writing skills. Furthermore, they expanded their vocabulary hugely, which will help them greatly at GCSE level. What’s more, they met leading experts in a specific field of expertise, developed new interests and expanded their horizons.

We are confident that all students involved achieved a great deal and are hopeful that some will consider University as a career pathway.