What is HEAPS?

 

The Teach First Higher Education Access Programme for Schools is a DCSF funded pilot programme aimed at improving pupil progression from Teach First schools to research intensive universities.

Falling under the Gifted and Talented strand of the Government's Raising Attainment and City Challenge initiatives, the programme works to leverage the commitment, passion and experience of the growing numbers of Teach First Ambassadors in school and out (in excess of 650 from July ’08 onwards), and their strong links with the Russell Group universities.

The programme includes:

• a mentoring scheme supporting  ‘gifted’ Year 12 students through the university application process

• exclusive university visits including a 4 day residential at Cambridge University

• Career evenings, debating training and other skills sessions

• a dedicated e-learning environmentcurrently under constrution

• Intervention at Key Stage 3 or 4
  

• a diagnostic study of current HE access programmes for Gifted and Talented

• training and support for all Teach First Teachers in working with Gifted pupils

Why Teach First?

Teach First is ideally placed to deliver a university access programme of this nature, not least because all participants and Ambassadors are recent graduates of Universities and the experience is still relatively fresh in their minds.

In its pilot year the programme will recruit and train around 60 Ambassadors to mentor 100 students and have a HEAPS ‘Advocate’ in every school to champion the programme. It will include a number of events to broaden students’ awareness of Higher Education, the flagship of which will be a residential course at Cambridge University, focusing on the ‘life’ skills needed for university, independent revision techniques, curriculum enrichment and detailing the nuances of the UCAS application process.

November 2009 wil see the launch of a third cohort of 200 sixthformers, to ass to the 265 students that have been through the mentoring programnme so far over two years