Serious Fun on Saturdays @ Eton College
The grant recipient
Eton College is in a formal partnership with six secondary comprehensives in Slough, Hounslow and Windsor. The college has run an annual summer school for Brent students for the last twenty years and piloted a Saturday project for local state school students prior to applying to SHINE.
The Stars programme
- a course over 15 Saturday mornings, with three small group master classes each morning and small group follow up work at school during the week
- in response to high numbers of young people in the area who are capable of academic study in sixth form and at university but not aspiring or going on to this
- for 120 gifted students in years 9 and 10 (13-15 year olds) from local state secondaries
- sessions are designed to develop creative, critical and independent thinking skills and include topics such as the theory of knowledge, experimental psychology, law and art history
- taught by excellent practitioner teachers from independent and state schools in the partnership
- aims for students to leave the course thinking differently and inspired to continue academic study post 16
Results
- attendance was 84-97%
- those students who completed the self-evaluation highlighted the critical thinking skills they had learned
The programme will track the students' academic attainment as they progress into sixth form.
The funding
SHINE has made a grant to contribute to the development and running costs of the project. The schools in the partnership are also providing in-kind and financial support for the programme.
Funding: £36,425 to Eton College, over three years (2009-12)
Visit the website for Eton College: http://www.etoncollege.com/
"Thank you so much for letting me see your remarkable project. I was especially impressed by the ambitious subjects and the way the pupils responded. I also saw some dazzling teaching. None of it would have been possible either, without the relaxed but purposeful tone which you and your colleagues set."
Visiting Independent-State School Partnership Co-ordinator
Quotes
"Thank you so much for letting me see your remarkable project. I was especially impressed by the ambitious subjects and the way the pupils responded. I also saw some dazzling teaching. None of it would have been possible either, without the relaxed but purposeful tone which you and your colleagues set."
Visiting Independent-State School Partnership Co-ordinator