Author: Dominika Niedzwiedzka

Final week at The Brilliant Club

Final week at the Brilliant Club: Interview with David Jones

My final post is an interview with David Jones, the Teaching and Learning Manager of The Scholars Programme. David’s first job after university was for a charity which runs low cost Saturday schools. He then trained to be a teacher and taught in a primary school in South London. David left the classroom with the intention of working for an educational organisation which turned out to be The Brilliant Club.

How did the Scholars Programme come about and how is it run? 

The Scholars Programme came about from the work of two teachers – Jonathan Sobczyk and Simon Coyle who participated in the Teach First training programme.

Weeks 2 and 3 at the Brilliant Club

Weeks 2 and 3 of my placement

I’ve developed a wide range of skills during the second week at the Brilliant Club. My supervisor was away and has left me a list of tasks to complete that week. This has greatly aided the development of my time management, organisational and written communication skills as I was required to work independently and correspond with participants of the programme, which gave me a great insight into what working for a charity is really like. 

During Weeks 2 and 3, I’ve continued my research into social mobility which is becoming more and more interesting, as I begin to draw links between different publications.

My first week at The Brilliant Club

During my four-week placement I will be working at the Brilliant Club, a charity which focuses on widening the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds at highly-selective universities. The charity runs a successful Scholars Programme which helps students to secure places at university by organising tutorials with PhD tutors for small groups of Year 6 to Year 12 students.

The charity is also in charge of running the Nuffield Research Placement in Greater London and Surrey which is the programme I am working on. The programme provides Year 12 students with the opportunity to complete a summer research placement in a STEM field thus enabling them to gain extremely valuable skills and experience, thus aiding them with their university application as well as equipping them with core competencies of a successful scientist.The