With the schools we work with now back in to the swing of a new term, we thought it would be a good time to provide a start of year update, and to look at the data relating to University places achieved this year.

Public exam results are an important time of the year for any educational organisation. While we believe our value added goes well beyond the raw grades a student achieves, and our actual day-to-day involvement in the attainment of their grades is limited, the core aim of our programme is to support our students in achieving University places and their exam results are clearly imperative to this. On this basis, we are delighted to note the statistics relating to our KAN APP 2013 cohort, having sat their A-Levels in May and June, and we congratulate them on the following:

• All but one of the cohort have been accepted by their first choice University

• All but two are attending a top 50 University, and all are attending a top 50 University for their chosen subject

• 75% are attending a University outside Kent

We are constantly striving to broaden the horizons and raise the aspirations of our students, and to improve the number of lower-income pupils able to study for a high quality degree. The 2013 cohort were our original cohort and piloted the programme; the early signs are fantastic in terms of what our students and our programmes are able to achieve. We are currently working with schools to analyse and evaluate the GCSE results of our year 10 and year 11 students.

Moving ahead in to the 2017/18 academic year, we are looking forward to the Brilliant Club Graduation Event to mark the work submitted by our year 11 and year 12 cohorts following their residential at Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge during this summer. This will take place on Saturday 23rd June at King’s College London. The Brightside Trust online mentoring platform has been modernised and renovated and students and mentors are working hard to adapt to the new system, and to continue to maximise the benefits it is able to provide. Autumn meet-ups will follow for students on both of our programmes and details of these events will be released in due course.

The Accelerate and Access Foundation would like to take this opportunity to wish the schools, teachers and mentors we work with, and most importantly our students, the very best for the academic year ahead.

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