ABOUT US
CHILDREN’S UNIVERSITY
As you may have heard we have joined Worcester Children’s University. This is fairly new to Worcestershire but is a marvellous scheme.
The scheme, which is part of the National Children’s University with the author Michael Morpugo as chancellor, recognises and rewards children for all the voluntary learning they do out of school time that links to higher education courses. Children will take part in validated activities in their school clubs, registered online activities and on family trips to recognised learning destinations across Worcestershire and the country. For an activity to be validated there must be a degree course in the UK which links to it, please see a list of local validated activities your child can take part in online at http://www.childrensuniversity.co.uk/worcestershire-cu/. Children’s University students use Passports To Learning in which they record the number of hours of completed CU validated learning activities and will have access to an e-learning passport too. Children are encouraged to progress through the national certification scheme, based on the number of hours of attendance to validated activities, and bronze, silver and gold certificates are awarded at CU Undergraduate, CU Postgraduate and CU Doctorate levels at an annual graduation ceremony.
Participation in the scheme will encourage children to take part in a wide variety of learning opportunities, it will give families great ideas for places to visit at weekends and in the holidays, it will give children a greater understanding about higher education and will encourage children to start thinking about their future aspirations.
For those who take part in the summer reading challenge, they can claim six hours. All clubs they have attended at school will be rewarded and there are many other local clubs now signing up to the scheme. Each term there is a Graduation scheduled held at Worcester University, and very good it is too, and for this the University recognising any children who have received 30 hours or more. This is actually achievable.
The cost to take part in the scheme is £5 per child, and for this children will get a passport to learning, regular updates on events at local learning destinations and school based CU activities, certificates to reward their participation and invitations to a free annual graduation event, which parents can also attend. Usual charges for clubs and entrance to places of interest are not included in the £5 joining fee.