We were very proud to hold our Brilliant Club Graduation at Northgate High School on Wednesday 5th May.
A small group of Year 9 students have been following the Brilliant Club course, in partnership with John Innes Centre, UEA and University of Cambridge.
Due to Covid, the students have had to work throughout lockdown on a PhD level project, entitled ‘Feeding a Hungry Planet: How Plant Science Can Help Provide for a Growing Global Population’ and have produced their own 2000 word research paper, entitled ‘Could, and should, genetic engineering of plants be used to help provide sustainable resources to society?’, based on their tutor’s work.
The project, which was delivered remotely by The Scholars Programme, has allowed the students to develop their academic research and essay writing skills, as well as adapting and developing their communication skills to enable them to engage with the programme in an online setting.
During the Graduation Event on Wednesday, the students were awarded with certificates by the Heads of School to commemorate all of their hard work over the last couple of months. Two of the students involved, Milo M and Joschka M achieved firsts for their work and you can read their submissions in a below.
Mrs Beasley, who co-ordinated the programme, said “The students displayed resilience, commitment and determination to complete their studies during very challenging circumstances and we are very proud of every one of them”.
This is the third year that Northgate has had a group of students involved in the initiative.
Milo, who achieved a first, said: At the beginning, I thought it would be difficult to write a 2000 word research essay along with all my school work in lockdown, but I decided to go to the first tutorial and I was gripped. The programme has given me the opportunity to learn from someone with high level knowledge and learn more about what is expected from university level writing. It has also helped me realise my love for Biology!
