Children and teenagers with a heightened academic ability can have a taste of university up to seven years before their peers through a new Brussels university programme.
Last year, the Flemish Government announced a new measure to allow so-called "academically-gifted pupils" (children who exceed the general education standard for their age) to progress to a higher year group to stop them from "getting tired of school."
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) goes further with a new programme named "Springbok" which will give gifted pupils between the ages of 11 to 15 a taste of university life before they graduate from high school.
"It's a challenge to offer tailor-made secondary education to gifted children. Many of them are looking for deeper integration of the subjects they learn at school, but the regular school system struggles to provide this. Springbok tries to meet that need," the university noted in a press release.
Stimulating environments
The scheme, due to launch this autumn, will see pupils follow the "English-language educational enrichment" programme alongside the regular school curriculum for an extra challenge. It is based on the Flemish concept of "Kangaroo Classes," which brings together gifted students in primary school for a few hours per week to learn more difficult subjects.
Pupils can take part in 20 "springbok days" which replace regular classes. Eight of these sessions will take place on location, such as on the VUB campus, where they will take part in classes, or in Bruges and Dinant. Here, research team CLEA will provide "pedagogy-inspired sessions, during which multi-age groups travel, eat and learn together."
"Traditionally, universities and libraries have always been stimulating environments for gifted adolescents," said Marta Lenartowicz, a researcher at VUB-CLEA. "By making the free-thinking and innovative spirit of the VUB accessible to them, we want to offer inspiration and care to adolescents who crave extra input."
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The 12 remaining days can be attended by the students from home. "This provides a break from the intense social exposure that is emotionally overwhelming for many highly sensitive, introverted people," the university noted.
Home classes will be conducted online through a video system that combines a game-like environment with avatars and rooms/territories. These sessions will also focus on skills and routines to stay healthy, self-regulated, productive and creative.
Interested parents can register their child for the Springbok programme from Thursday 10 August. The programme will run from October 2023 to May 2024.
