In December, twelve Year 8 Brilliant Club pupils completed their final assignments and received thorough feedback from their PhD mentor, Mr. Simon Buck. This is the third consecutive Brilliant Club Scholars’ Programme that has been completed at Thornhill Academy by some of our highest attaining pupils.  

Simon is working on a PhD in the topic of ‘Music in the US South’ with Northumbria University. Simon worked collaboratively with our Brilliant Club cohort this year on their project; ‘Music with a Message: Understanding America Through Song’. This was a challenging humanities-based topic which covered aspects relating to historical movements and events, language and music. It was really enjoyable to learn about how race, gender and class were portrayed in American music and how these then contributed to social movements and protests.  

In contrast with the previous years that Thornhill has hosted the Brilliant Club Programme, the pupils working on the project this year faced an additional challenge in that that 100% of it was done remotely due to the current pandemic. However, every pupil showed huge determination, grit, and completed the programme with flying colours.   

Thornhill Academy was delighted to receive the final grades from the final assignments completed. The results were the best yet and demonstrated just how inspired these pupils were and how much sheer hard work went into their time during the programme.  

Everyone at Thornhill Academy is extremely proud of every pupil who took part this year and hope that they have been inspired to aim for the top throughout their time at Thornhill and beyond. Well done Brilliant Club Class of 2020! 

Mrs K. Nutman 

Lead Teacher for The Brilliant Club