Balliol is launching Discovery, a two-year virtual sustained-contact programme for Key Stage 4 students.
From 15 March until the end of May, small groups of academically able students in year 10 will take part in a series of virtual academic enrichment sessions after school. The sessions will cover a wide variety of humanities and science topics, such as an introduction to classics, machine learning and neuroscience. Students will join the sessions in their classroom with their lead teacher for the programme. Prior to each session they will complete a short task and afterwards they will record what they have learned in their Discovery learning log. In the summer, they will visit Balliol and take part in a ‘graduation’ ceremony.
At the end of year 10 students will have the option to continue on the programme into year 11. As part of the year 11 programme, after their GCSE exams in June the emphasis will change to A‑Level choices and subject-specific activities.
Once again, we are delighted to be able to harness the talents and skills of our graduate community, who will deliver the Discovery sessions. Many of them have also made videos for our Springboard collection and are delivering live academic talks for schools.
The aims of the programme are to increase students’ enjoyment of learning and to increase their awareness of the range of courses and subjects available to study – post-16 courses as well as university courses. By introducing this programme for GCSE students we are creating a learning ladder for able students, who will be able to go on to apply to either our Floreat humanities programme or our Frontier science programme once they enter the sixth form.
If you would like to support Balliol’s Outreach work, please make your gift to Outreach today.