James Thackery

" I heard about the Brilliant Club via a departmental email that circulates with opportunities for PhD students. I wanted to get involved because I grew up in a disadvantaged area myself, and came close to going down bad paths, but PhD students from my church got me interested in learning, achieving and finding a passion. I felt it was important to pass this down to the next generation of children whose potential is limited by circumstance.

I taught year 6 students about the scientific method, using the cardiovascular system as a case study. The children found the trip to the university exciting and inspiring, and absorbed the lessons eagerly. As, this was a pre-prepared lesson, I had little to do except come up with interesting activities to keep the kids enthused enough to pay attention during the more complicated or taxing parts of the lessons. 

The pupils gained valuable experience in conducting scientific research, and hopefully it furthered their interest in STEM subjects. But I also feel that the lesson content is only a small part of what’s being taught to the children. I feel that every one of my students left with higher aspirations, a desire to go to university, and a belief that hard-work can shape your life for the better.

As for myself, I feel I developed a greater ability to teach and inspire young children, and my activity-designing has gone up several notches. I also got a huge amount of personal satisfaction from the work, as all the students clearly loved being in the class – I was even rewarded with a hand-made bookmark from one of my quieter students which I’m still using now! Although it was a fair amount of work during the day itself, I managed quite well mostly because I do a lot of the planning at home, where I’m used to working. I also travelled by train and read research papers on the commute, so I got some work done. "