Back to The Brilliant Club!

As you may recall from last year's posts, I work for The Brilliant Club, a charity placing young reseachers in non-selective state schools and sixth form colleges serving low participation communities to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials to small student groups.

I've developed a course on "Does the Telly Lie? Media and the Middle East", which I've had lots of fun teaching to students across a variety of ages in the last year. Last week, I visited the University of Warwick for the first time on a launch trip. Students from Dormers Wells High School came for a day of campus tours, study skills sessions, and an introductory tutorial from me. My first session teases them about the Middle East and geography - they try to label a map, have a quiz with no real answers, and learn how to write their names in the Arabic script.

I'll go to their high school for the first time tomorrow to dive into the real stuff. I will have two groups of six students for an hour several times over the next few weeks. Then they'll leave for the summer and write their essays. I'll see them again in September when school is back in session to give out feedback and have a reunion party.

I also get to teach an intensive version of the course at the end of July at King's on their K+ Summer Spotlight Programme as part of their Widening Participation initiatives.