The Children's University (CU) Trust is a charitable trust that
provides 7 to 14 year olds (and 5 to 6 year olds with their
families) with exciting and innovative learning activities and
experiences outside normal school hours. We celebrate achievement
and reward participation through our certificates. Raising
children's aspirations is important to us and we aim to develop the
understanding that learning can be "...a satellite navigation
system to better places in life…".
"Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember;
involve me and I will understand!" - Anon
As a rule of thumb, Children's University learning equals
'grown-ups university' learning; it is learning which can be
'connected' to Higher Education course provision as exemplified
on www.ucas.com/students/coursesearch -
in other words: if you can get a degree in it the Children's
University wants to know! This is what the Children's University
terms the thinking at the start of the journey to independent
learning …
A Passport To Learning has
been created, in which 7 to 14 year old children - and 5 and 6 year
olds with grown-ups - collect 'stamps' and hours of accredited
learning. This contributes to the award of a certificate,
encouraging them to access Children's University provision and a
wide range of other worthwhile out-of-school-hours learning
opportunities. This innovation has received widespread support from
sponsors and partners. Our sponsors include JP Morgan, Garfield
Weston Foundation, Sutton Trust, Nationwide Building Society,
Fidelity Foundation and Charles Dunstone Charitable Trust. Our
partners include: Higher and Further Education Institutions,
Museums, Libraries and Archives, Woodland Trust, English Heritage,
Shakespeare 4 Kidz and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Houses of
Parliament, BBC and B & Q. Internationally, our increasing
number of partners include the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, the
archaeological site Varusschlacht and Museum und Park Kalkriese
Osnabrück in Germany and the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence,
Italy.
Passport To Learning can be purchased from the
local CU Manager. Each Passport To Learning is
individually numbered which makes each child, as passport holder,
an individual member of the Children's University. Tracking
development and progress as part of the evaluation of impact is in
this way also possible. This may be of particular interest to
individual schools and Local Authorities as well as government
agencies. An electronic version of the Passport To
Learning (E-Passport) has been developed in
partnership with private sector partners Exasoft Plc / bit10, to
promote even greater independence in our learners and to enable
children to actively log and manage their achievements. The
E-Passport can also assist in children's transition from
the primary to secondary phase and act as evidence in schools'
monitoring, reporting and (Ofsted) self-evaluation.
Learning Destinations
"The aim of teaching is not to produce learning but to
produce the conditions for learning, this is the focal point, the
quality of learning." - Loris Malaguzzi
Learning Destinations are places and organisations to
which children can 'travel' with their Passport To
Learning. They provide high quality learning activities and
experiences with a 'wow' factor and have passed the Children's
University's own quality assurance process (Planning for
Learning). A Learning Destination can range from a
museum to a farm or from an airport to a university as long as the
learning activity connects with Children's University learning,
which is in turn linked to actual university course provision (as
exemplified on www.ucas.ac.uk/students/coursesearch/).
Partners as diverse as the Woodland Trust, English Heritage, and B
& Q offer treasure trails and history walks, measuring,
calculating, designing and making, playing an instrument,
photography, sports and first aid, and much much more.
The status as a CU validated Learning Destination will
in principle last for 3 years and is as such a licence agreement
between the Children's University and the individual Learning
Destination. As part of the local Children's University's
monitoring and evaluation of learning activities additional local
CU support may be available to individual Learning
Destinations.
Learning Destinations display the CU's Learning
Destination logo prominently in and outside their environment,
clearly visible to children who may want to use their Passport
To Learning there. Learning Destinations are also
strongly encouraged to include the Learning Destination
logo on literature, letter headed paper and to have a web link to
the CU website. To find a Learning Destination near you
please go to the Learning Destinations page.
Passport holders can now access all of the public Learning
Destinations across the United Kingdom and beyond to go on
their own journey to independent learning. Schools can also
be Learning Destinations through their
out-of-school-hours offer - these Learning Destinations
are mostly restricted to targeted groups of children and therefore
do no appear as public Learning Destinations on the CU
website.
Learning Destinations 'stamp' the child's Passport
To Learning to correspond with the time a child has been
engaged in the validated learning activities within the
Learning Destination. This therefore contributes to the
child's record of achievements and CU Certification.
Learning Destinations ensure, where appropriate,
attendance and evaluation records related to CU activities can be
available to the Children's University to assist in developments,
evaluation and research.
Children's University Certificates
The 'stamps' which children collect in their Passport To
Learning will be issued by CU validated Learning
Destinations and will represent that particular organisation's
logo. The 'stamps' will in this way contribute to a child's record
of achievement culminating in the presentation of Children's
University Certificates for voluntary participation in high quality
out-of-school-hours learning. These certificates are awarded at
three levels: CU Undergraduate, CU Postgraduate (where tangible
outcomes of learning are expected, such as displays and
publications) and CU Doctorate (where children are expected to act
as 'Leaders of Learning' for others). The hours are outlined below.
Certificates are typically presented to children at 'graduation'
ceremonies in or with the support of 'grown-ups' universities.
Honorary certificates are also awarded for outstanding achievement
and commitment.
The E-Passport
The E-Passport is an exciting new development that
complements, but does not replace the Passport To
Learning. In its simplest form the paper Passport To
Learning is an achievement log, and the E-Passport is
a more interactive achievement manager.
Following a successful pilot which involved a number of CUs, we
are confident that the E-Passport will enable students to
move from a simple log of activities towards other learning
activities and in turn to greater achievement within the CU. The
E-Passport has been developed in partnership with bit10
and their parent company Exasoft Plc. The current version has
already built in a number of features requested through feedback
from the pilot, and we will gradually be adding new features over
the course of its introduction.
The E-Passport has important benefits for the students,
CU representatives, schools and colleges and CU Learning
Destinations:
- Children using it can choose, log and manage their learning
activities, as well as share their opinions on how good the
learning was and even recommend it to others;
- CU representatives using it can streamline their
administration;
- At whole school or college level reports can be generated to
demonstrate the difference that CU learning can make and provide
evidence to complement their own self-evaluation and inform
judgements about external accountability;
- Learning Destinations can see reports of how many
children have visited their site, as well as how they rated the
learning.
