James Jennings

I first heard about the Brilliant club in a faculty-wide email, and it immediately caught my attention as a fantastic opportunity for a number of reasons. At the time, I was beginning my new position at Sheffield and looking for a teaching placement as professional development for my academic career. Of all the opportunities on offer, the motivation behind the Brilliant Club made it stand out the most. Having attended a secondary school where a high proportion of pupils didn’t continue to further education, I’m aware first-hand of the barriers to reaching top universities for talented pupils from under-represented backgrounds. I was lucky to have the right encouragement along the way that meant I was successful in my university applications. Being able to use teaching to increase the confidence of talented pupils inspired me to apply to be a tutor at the Brilliant Club.

I taught a course on liquid crystals to year 9 and 10 pupils in Sheffield. This subject area often intersected with their KS3 syllabus, and offered them insight into how scientific research can lead to advances in technology. The process of designing a complete course and delivering tutorials was challenging and enjoyable: thankfully we were well prepared after the Brilliant Club training weekend! The tutorials themselves were very rewarding, and taught me a great deal about building rapport with pupils while gradually reinforcing their understanding during the course. It was a pleasure to witness the pupils developing new skills, particularly how to summarise scientific research in a new subject. After the final assignment I felt proud of their achievements and new abilities, and I hope that they can continue to work hard and make it to the top universities!

For me, the most valuable aspects of the Brilliant Club were the significant didactic skills I picked up. These skills will be invaluable for undergraduate teaching and outreach that I plan to undertake in the future. Overall the programme was extremely fulfilling and will be a huge benefit for my future career!