The Scholars' Programme
Welcome to The Scholars' Programme at Cleveland Road Primary
At Cleveland, we are always looking for ways to engage, motivate and inspire our children with creative and aspirational learning, in and out of the classroom. Each year, a group of Year 5 pupils take part in our Scholars’ Programme. The Scholars’ Programme was established by a charitable organisation that seeks to increase fair access to highly selective universities, by placing PhD students in schools to deliver university-style teaching to high-performing pupils.
During the year, the Year 5 children visit a university campus and glimpse what life is like when studying in a higher-education establishment. The children receive tutorials from PhD students. Establishements have, in the past included, The University of London’s SOAS Campus. SOAS is the only Higher Education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East. The children have also visited King’s College, London and Cambridge University.
The children are taught by a PhD tutor, who delivers a university-style module, which is a specifically designed programme. Last year, the module was based on STEM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). At the end of the programme, our scholars write a 1000-word assignment based on their learning. They are all then given university-style grades.
Our children do an amazing job representing Cleveland Road and we are all very proud of them. They find the programme inspiring and aspirational and it gives them an opportunity to consider taking their learning to the highest levels.
The Scholars' Programme: Impact
The Brilliant Club works with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to evaluate the impact The Scholars Programme on progression to highly-selective universities. In both years, UCAS found that pupils who completed The Scholars Programme were significantly more likely to apply to, receive an offer from and progress to a highly-selective university than pupils in control groups matched for prior attainment and socio-economic factors.
Have a look at the analysis, which found that pupils who completed The Scholars' Programme were significantly more likely to progress to a highly-selective university, having made the conditions of their offer including their A-Level grades. Each time pupils take part, an impact report is created. As well as details of the programme, and pupil attendance and attainment in comparison with our regional and national averages, details of pupil self-evaluation surveys are included. All pupils to fill out self-evaluation forms at the beginning and end of each Scholars Programme. The percentages shown below indicate the number of pupils who ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with some sample statements, and demonstrate how this changed from the start of the programme to the end.