‘At our school, it’s cool to be nerdy…’

The Competitive Admissions Programme derived from a need to start supporting applications for competitive courses at the most sought-after universities, a great deal earlier than Year 12.

Some of the students were arriving in Year 12 and, although they were very strong academically, they weren’t previously exposed to the breadth of super-curricular activities available at BGS and, thus, found they were lacking some key attributes in order to make a competitive application to the top universities. Our programme was set up to develop these key skills for our most able students, although it’s open to all who wish to join.

The CAP programme is delivered by our Teaching and Learning Champions, beginning with an introduction to super-curricular activity in Year 9, with a formal launch of a tailored, three term programme in Year 10. We start off learning about enhanced debating and public speaking skills. Students are able to collaborate and share their viewpoints confidently in groups, learning the importance of thinking on the spot and delivering their ideas clearly. We then focus on the Cambridge essay writing competition and look at more formal academic papers, where we cover critical appraisal and research skills. Again, this is building on the key super-curricular skills universities are looking for in successful candidates. Term three sees the launch of the BGS Ted talk, where students present for five minutes on a topic they’re passionate about, putting into use the skills from the previous two terms. This term brings a confident and climatic end to the first leg of the programme.

It’s wonderful to see the students grow with the programme. Of the current Year 11s, we had some really able pupils, but some of them were really quite quiet, and we’ve tried to give them a bit of a voice. We were really surprised at some of the topics they picked for their Ted talk – from “Optimistic Nihilism” to “The impact of Idi Amin on Uganda”. It was very encouraging to see them coach each other in the preparation and research stages and we were impressed with, not only the depth of research, but the breadth of the topics which they wanted to speak about. We encourage them to talk in a safe space, where they’re with like-minded very clever people. At our school, it’s cool to be nerdy!

We’re about to receive the first Year 12 cohort, who completed the programme in Years 10 and 11, and it will be interesting to see how far they’ve come. Once they arrive in Year 12 the programme is very individualised, with each student working closely with other students interested in their field, alongside their own subject mentor. They need to be listening to podcasts, reading articles and journals and discussing what they hear and read. Oxford and Cambridge put a massive emphasis on wider reading. It’s about showing they’re passionate about their subject and are eager to learn more about it, beyond the constraints of the A-Level syllabus. Top universities are keen to see evidence of this within their personal statement.

We also support students preparing for admissions tests and interviews. All of our students have at least two mock interviews in preparation for the real thing, and we have a large pool of Old Bradfordians who offer their support for this. Every one of our interviewers are experts in their field, from surgeons and dentists to PhD students. This gives the students a very realistic experience of what the actual interview will be like.

It’s very exciting on results day when all the hard work pays off and you get to see the joy in their faces. Last year we saw great success, with nine students going on to study at Oxford or Cambridge and a record 21 accepted onto Medicine or Dentistry courses.

It’s been really exciting to teach the softer skills to the students through the Competitive Admissions Programme, much of which you don’t get to teach in a maths lesson and, as such, we feel we get to know the students even better. We call it competitive admissions, but it’s not the be all and end all and everything they learn over the four-year programme will stand them in good stead when they leave regardless.