Sanctuary Scholars – opportunity for KS4 pupils in Cambridgeshire

We’re delighted to announce that this year Culham St Gabriel’s has funded The Brilliant Club to deliver the Sanctuary Scholars project for approximately 30 KS4 Sanctuary Scholars in Cambridgeshire.

The programme entails a launch trip and tutorial at The Woolf Institute, four one-hour tutorials in school with PhD tutors, a graduation trip (venue TBC), and a chance for students to record their responses to the ‘Big Question’ and have this heard by many across the region.

In order to accommodate for a range of abilities and subject interests, the students will study a single ‘Big Question’ from three different perspectives. Previous examples of these have included ‘Is Change Important?’ and ‘Understanding the Body: What makes Identity?’.

The PhD tutors will be drawn from a range of academic subjects focused on worldviews, such as Philosophy, Religious Studies and Theology. Each tutor will work with each group on a rotational basis to share how their discipline would approach the question. The students will have a lead PhD tutor who will also support them to develop key academic skills. The tutorials will culminate in the students recording their response to the Big Question and this being played around campus as part of their graduation event.

It worth noting that these placements are fully funded so, beyond lead teacher time and travel to the launch and graduation, there will be no cost to the school.

A write up about last year’s iteration of the programme in Greater Manchester, and its impact, can be found here: The Sanctuary Scholars Programme 2024 – Increasing a sense of belonging for students from refugee, asylum-seeking and forced migrant backgrounds at UK HE institutions through a ‘place-based’ approach, mobilising the PhD community – Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) (hubhere.org)

Who is eligible?:

We want to make this programme as accessible as possible whilst also still having a positive impact on the target group, therefore we ask that students who participate be from KS4 and are either refugees, asylum seekers or forced migrant backgrounds themselves, or whose parents/carers are refugee, asylum seekers or forced migrants. We would also ask that ideally any school interested has between 5-15 prospective students that fit the above criteria.

Key Dates: The key dates of the programme are below:

• Launch Trip and Tutorial 1 – After School Thursday 4th June at The Woolf Institute, Cambridge.
• Tutorial 2 – W/C 9th June
• Tutorial 3 – W/C 16th June
• Tutorial 4 – W/C 23rd June
• Tutorial 5 – W/C 30th June
• Graduation Trip –After school on W/C 14th July (Venue and Date TBC)

Please note, we would expect at least one staff member from your school to accompany the students on both trips.

Next Steps: If your school would be interested in participating again in this project, please can you email alex.owens@thebrilliantclub.org by Wednesday 16th December with the following info:

• The exact number of students you would like to participate. (You do not have to have all of their details at this stage.)
• Your preferred times for tutorials to occur on the weeks commencing 9th June- 30th June. (We will try our best to accommodate these.)
• Confirm that a member of staff could be present as the tutor delivers their sessions.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask alex.owens@thebrilliantclub.org.