The Brilliant Club - Scholars Programme

This year, fourteen of our Year 6 students took part in The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme, partnering with colleges and universities across the UK to learn about different topics such as law, biology and engineering. These children worked with a PhD tutor throughout the Autumn term, focussing on their key question: “How many engineers does it take to make ice cream?”. The children looked at different types of engineers, which included mechanical engineering, biochemical engineering and industrial engineering as well as the engineering design process. This encouraged our young scholars to think both creatively and critically while they improved upon and solved problems in the ice cream making process. Extensive research was conducted throughout the several weeks of the programme, which allowed the children to exhibit resilience and determination while completing their final assignment. This final challenge was marked and moderated using university grades. The students’ exceptional hard work was celebrated with a graduation event held at The University of Reading on Thursday 29th February, with Gulsoom (6E) and Harmanvir (6E) representing Minet Junior School as    keynote speakers. Please join me in congratulating the following students: Dusya (6C), Irfa (6S), Harmanvir (6E), Sufyan (6E), Vineet (6S), Alim (6C), Sakish (6S), Shazmiena (6C), Lilac (6S), Izzy (6C), Gulsoom (6E), Nasib (6P), Jamal (6P), Kirishan (6C).

“I thought this was a valuable opportunity as I was able to understand the basics of engineering and how multiple people are involved in the process of making ice cream.  Moreover, it gives an insight of life in university. I thoroughly enjoyed it!” – Irfa (6S)

 “I feel that this was an amazing opportunity that gave me a rough idea of where I need to improve. I believe it’s an eyeopener to subjects I never would have thought of if it wasn’t for The Brilliant Club.” – Lilac (6S)

"I really enjoyed learning and gaining a better understanding of engineering and I am very grateful for being offered this wonderful opportunity to take part in The Brilliant Club programme" - Vineet (6S)

Excerpts from the speeches:

" When I am older I will hopefully attend university and I want to study medicine there. I look forward to the opportunity and will use what I learnt in the Brilliant Club to help me do so" - Gulsoom (6E)

"In this course, we learnt about engineering and 'how many engineers it takes to make ice-cream'. We also learnt what emulsifiers and stabilizers are and how they are the ingredients needed in ice cream to help make the texture creamy and stop it from going grainy. Another skill we used was maths as you need to add the correct amount of ingredients for ice cream. Maths is what I would like to study as I would like to be an accountant one day and it is an important subject to learn." - Harmanvir (6E)