What is TAP Enrichment?
Though the Top Achievers’ Programme (TAP) was initially established to support the university application of high-achieving students, it soon became apparent that many students who did not currently have evidently high attainment, if given the proper support, may go on to achieve to their fullest potential.
In 2018, we launched ‘TAP Enrichment’; an arm of the service providing support for all secondary school students regardless of their baseline attainment. With our expertise and partnership-working with Schools/Sixth Forms/Colleges/Parents/Carers, we help each student to gain that winning edge required for progressing to Higher Education (be it at the wide range of Universities or Apprenticeship opportunities).
Over the years, we have produced ample evidence that both TAP and TAP Enrichment are equally effective student-mentoring programmes for raising aspirations and meeting the bespoke support needs of every student.
ENRICHMENT FOR PROGRESSION TO HIGHER EDUCATION
Pilot Project:
Over two (2) Academic Years, a UK local government council commissioned the Top Achievers’ Programme (TAP) to design and deliver a 2-part project to raise aspiration and HE-progression amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds selected from schools across that local government area.
TAP achieved its measured project outcome, with 100% of participants progressing to Universities in September 2017; including 70% progressing to Russell Group Universities and highly competitive Medical Schools. This further established the Top Achievers’ Programme as a proven evidence-based approach to supporting the most disadvantaged young people to progress to Higher Education.
Scale-Up Project:
Following the successfully piloted project in Thurrock and amongst similar disadvantaged groups in inner-city London, the “Thurrock Enrichment for HE-progression” project was launched in March 2018. Funded by Make Happen – part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) by the Office for Students (OfS) – Top Achievers’ Programme (TAP) in collaboration with Thurrock Council, delivered this scale-up TAP Enrichment project to students that live in target ‘low progression’ wards across Thurrock. These wards were selected because they have: (i) low progression to HE overall or, (ii) lower than expected HE progression based on GCSE attainment.
Regardless of their baseline attainment level at the time of joining the programme, the single criteria for participation by students and their parents/carers is that they live in identified Thurrock NCOP postcodes.
With a series of events for students in Years 9,10,11,12 and 13, this project reached many target students (and parents/carers) from the identified low progression NCOP postcodes across Thurrock. A total of 110 scheduled project activity sessions were delivered across Thurrock Schools, Sixth Forms and Colleges.
TAP Enrichment Project Outcome
On Results Day 2019, 80% of the Sixth Forms and College student participants received admission to progress to Universities across Wales, Scotland, and England including some highly competitive Universities (such as UCL, LSE, Cambridge, Warwick, Bristol) and a wide range of Courses (including Art, Drama, Education, Economics, Law, and Medicine) with the remaining student participants mostly progressing to Apprenticeship programmes in a range of sectors.