The Brilliant Club

The Brilliant Club operates two programmes. The Scholars Programme is delivered by trained PhD tutors in schools across the UK.[2] They share their subject knowledge and enthusiasm with small groups of pupils aged 8–18 across seven tutorials.[2] Course titles are based on their areas of postgraduate research and have included: ‘Bacteria superheroes: can they help us save our environment?’ and ‘Is the internet an artist? Creativity in the digital age’. Students then complete a university-style final assignment and attend two trips to competitive universities to speak with current undergraduates and learn about university life.[2]  

For the last five years, The Brilliant Club has worked with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to evaluate the impact of The Scholars Programme on progression to competitive universities.[3] In 2021, The Brilliant Club published the latest UCAS analysis which demonstrated that for the fifth year running, students who completed The Scholars Programme are statistically significantly more likely to apply to, receive an offer from and progress to a competitive university than students from similar backgrounds with matched prior attainment (44% vs. 28%).[4]

In 2020, as part of the government's National Tutoring Programme, The Brilliant Club launched The Brilliant Tutoring Programme.[5] The online tutoring is designed to support the national coronavirus catch-up effort.[6] It was confirmed in September 2021 that The Brilliant Club was an approved tuition partner of The National Tutoring Programme for the second year running.[7]

Between 2014 and 2021, the charity ran Researchers in Schools (RIS), a route into classroom teaching tailored specifically to PhD graduates.[8] The programme is delivered in partnership with the Department for Education and Initial Teacher Education providers in England.[8]  It has placed over 350 participants into schools as classroom teachers.

The Brilliant Club launched its five-year strategy, Join the club, in September 2021.[9] It outlines plans to overcome two major barriers to educational equality in the UK: access to and success at the most competitive universities.[9]

In 2011, The Brilliant Club was named the winner of a Teach First Social Innovation Award.[10] In the same year it was one of the top ten Future 100 winners[11] and in 2012, The Brilliant Club was listed as one of Britain's 50 New Radicals[12] by Nesta and The Observer. In 2013, the organisation joined Ernst & Young's Accelerate[13] programme. It was used as a case study by Equity Ideas,[14] and mentioned in Ofsted's 2015 report 'The Most Able Students, an update in progress since June 2013'.[15] In December 2015, the charity was named as one of The Guardian's Charity Award winners for 2015.[16] In 2019, The Brilliant Club was awarded second place in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to work for list. It was also named as one of the 75 Best Small Companies in London.[17]

Each term, The Brilliant Club publishes The Scholar,[18] an academic journal dedicated to showcasing school students' work.