Year 10 students from Ark Elvin Academy school in Brent visited University College London this week to celebrate their graduation from a programme designed to improve their GCSE results.
The students toured campus, heard talks from university student volunteers and discussed highlights from the programme during their visit.
The volunteer-run scheme, hosted by education charity TalentEd, saw a collection of the most promising students from the school attend weekly two-hour classes designed to help them in every aspect of life, from GCSEs to job interviews.
A combination of individual tutors and student volunteers helped to run the programme throughout the year, which saw 90 per cent of those who took part say they now feel more informed about different academic and career options.
The same number of students also said they felt like they had a better understanding of the routes into higher education.
“TalentEd’s teachers have stretched, challenged and supported our brightest students over an excellent year,” said teacher Lucy Monk.
“They have positively impacted academic work and aspirations and have greatly helped with reducing stress and increasing confidence.”
Tasks undertaken by the youngsters included essay writing, interview taining and confidence building exercises, all culminating with the award of their certificates at the university this past week.
The 2015/16 year was the school’s first as part of the Ark network of schools, whose “mission is to make sure that every pupil can go to university or into the career of their choice”.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here