Who We Are

Researchers in Schools and The Brilliant Club

The Researchers in Schools programme is delivered by The Brilliant Club, an award-winning charity that exists to widen access to highly-selective universities for pupils from under-represented groups. The way that we do this is by recruiting, training and placing doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in non-selective state schools across the country.

The Brilliant Club delivers two programmes: through The Scholars Programme, PhD tutors deliver programmes of university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils, from Year 6 through to Year 12, which develop the knowledge, skills and ambition that help those pupils to secure places at highly-selective universities; through Researchers in Schools, PhD graduates are recruited, placed and trained in non-selective, secondary, state schools to become highly-effective classroom teachers, champions of university access and future subject leaders in the education sector.

Researchers in Schools is currently delivered in partnership with 10 School-Centred Initial Teacher Training providers and 50 placement schools across England, as well as, charity partners, link universities and the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL).

RIS Partnerships

The founding partners of RIS are George Abbot SCITT, Lampton School, The Brilliant Club, King’s College London and Challenge Partners. Each organisation has a demonstrable track record of training teachers and/or working with postdoctoral researchers. Further, they each have access to the broader networks - including recruitment, training and support - required to establish and deliver a national bespoke ITTP that equips researchers to become highly effective classroom teachers.

	The Brilliant Club is an award-winning charity that mobilises doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to increase fair access to highly selective universities. The charity’s principal activity is to recruit, train and employ researchers to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials to small groups of high performing pupils in schools that serve communities with low rates of progression to higher education. Working in partnership with the Sutton Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and a number of leading universities, the organisation currently employs over 150 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers who will deliver programmes to over 4,000 pupils this year.
	Lampton School was designated as one of the first 100 teaching schools in the country and now has responsibility for leading the ‘self- improving school system’ in their local area and beyond. They work closely with 18 primary, secondary and special schools and a variety of HE partners collectively known as The London West Alliance. Lampton School is judged to be ‘Outstanding’ in every category by OFSTED and was included in the OFSTED ‘Twelve Outstanding Schools – Excelling Against the Odds’ publication. The school’s Head Teacher, Dame Sue John, is the Director of the London Leadership Strategy and a National Leader of Education. In this role she has worked as a project manager for some of London’s most challenging and complex schools. Dame Sue is also a member of the Future Leaders’ Project Board, a member of the DfE Secondary Head Teachers’ Reference Group and now serves as a non-executive director on the DfE Board.
	Challenge Partners is a school improvement network which improves performance through effective learning partnerships and rigorous quality assurance processes. An innovative peer-to-peer network is the main focus of the partnership’s activities. This has its roots in the London Challenge programme, which pioneered an approach to school improvement based on school-to-school support and practitioner led innovation. When the programme ended, many of the school leaders who played a role in that work committed to developing a self-funding and sustainable way, through Challenge Partners, to continue and develop this approach nationally. The partnership now contains over 230 schools across the country and includes schools from all phases, governance types, and stages in their school improvement journey.
	George Abbot SCITT is a respected and established provider delivering school based initial teacher training. Led by Peter Gale, a former HMI, they have more than 10 years’ experience of leading ITT and have trained over 200 teachers. The school offers school-centred training in a wide range of secondary subjects through SCITT and School Direct routes. Their training programmes all include ‘opt in aspects’ that allow trainees to create bespoke training experiences to suit their future career aspirations. OFSTED has rated the delivery of training across their partnership as ‘Outstanding’ and the testimony from past trainees is excellent. In 2012 they were one of only two providers in the UK to be asked by the Teaching Agency to lead the way in the future of teacher training in schools by developing the new SCITT programme.
	King’s College London is a world-leading university, currently ranked 19th in the world (6th in the UK and 8th in Europe) in the 2013 QS World University Rankings, and 38th in the world (6th in the UK and 9th in Europe) in the 2013 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. There are currently 12 Nobel Prize laureates amongst King’s alumni and current and former faculty. King’s is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, the Russell Group and Universities UK. It forms part of the ‘golden triangle’ of British universities. King’s College London are supporting the programme through their Widening Participation Department and their Graduate School.