News and Updates from the CU team
20/06/20
Dear Parents and Carers
Hello everyone, I hope you are all still staying positive and safe out there and that not being able to access our usual activities and school is not proving too problematic.
Here at Westminster Children’s University, we are really busy making videos for our upcoming well-being project; which will go live on the For Children and Parents tab in next week.
I have been busily uploading even more mini -projects so that your children can work through the activities and access some of the fun we have planned for you all. I’ve also been working away continuing to add new and exciting things to the website for everyone to take part in; as you know I will update everyone weekly in this is the news section. Each week you can see all the new projects that you can take part in; remember that all projects are away of gaining new CU hours!
We had some enquiries about passports, if you still have a passport that has space on it, please feel free to use it! However, we have uploaded in the Parents Zone an online log book for your children to fill-in, so they can collect their hours by accessing the website and doing the projects that are in place. However if printing of resources is a difficulty ,that is not a problem either; feel free to make a list of the activity; the day it is done and the amount of hours you would like to claim for it and keep it safe. We will do all of the rest in September when we have an hours update project planned.
Trend Micro
Trend Micro are amazing friends at Trend Micro have been working away to create a whole set of guides for you and activities based around technology coding and computing you can access these in the PDFs that are in the tab for Trend Micro in For Children and Parents. These are a super way of encouraging Internet citizenship and developing new skills. We look forward to doing lots of exciting things with Trend Micro, both online and in person, and thank them for their commitment to getting young people Internet safe and literate. Each PDF is worth three hours of learning in your Children’s University log, so there’s lots of opportunity to gain some great CU hours
Break Awareness Project
It’s not just important to stay safe online, but also to stay safe when you’re out and about. Maybe you could be doing a daily exercise or even just going to do some exploring with your parents? Therefore we have added the tab for Break Road safety in For Children and Parents.
There you can find a range of colouring and puzzle activities, all based around road citizenship and safety. In just the same way as with the Trend Micro projects, each one of these activities carries a three hour Children’s University allowance, so get creating, colouring and problem solving .Don’t forget to feel free to share your work with us ;we have stickers for those who are able to share completed work which we can post on the website
Animal Edge
The Animal Edge Project is an amazing way for young people to complete two separate projects, all about unusual and endangered animals across the globe. This project packs contain everything you will need to produce amazing work in response to the information within them. Why not take a picture of your finished project? We would love to post it up on the website in the tab and share your work. Anyone completing the two projects can download their own certificate of completion; I am happy to print these for you and take a little picture of you receiving them at the school if you would like? However, that this would be dependent on you uploading photo evidence of your completed project. Remember to do this you must email the work to me at swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk and this must be done only by your parents.
Arts Award Transition
Arts award are very keen to get young people involved in qualifying for their discover program. Which of course, I can accredit for you once submitted. They have now created a Transition Tool Kit and logbook which young people can use to qualify. It has all been uploaded in the Arts Award and For Children and Parents tab, this is a great way of you taking part in an independent project with your families and sharing your amazing work. I am going to be working with Paddington central to put on an exhibition of artwork generated through the website once we are all back together, so I’m really looking forward to starting to see your wonderful creations coming in.
Entomology Week
We are hoping to celebrate young entomology week this week and next week as it is a national event and here at the children’s university we just love hunting for mini-beasts and all the STEM activities that are accessible through the investigating, recording and classifying of our amazing native mini-beast wildlife.
The young entomology Project are hoping to collect thousands of images of the children’s discoveries to become part of a huge, nationally commissioned piece of art. We are inviting our Children’s University Students to get exploring, observing and creating. Just pick any mini-beast (insect) observe them, then draw, paint or create them. Share the images with us; we can’t wait to submit them and see what you find!
Young #Writers Write To Unite project
Well done to everybody who created acrostic poems this week, they have already been sent off to Young Writers and have been acknowledged as entries to the competition.
I have also uploaded them on the website and I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of you guys out there come up with for your acrostic poem. Remember you can use your name or a word that you think best resembles your experiences, or even a word that you feel represents you.
Amazing work everybody, they were great to read I can’t wait to receive some more.
10/06/20
Dear Parents and Carers
First of all we hope you are all safe and well and getting the opportunity to share and have positive experience together, in this most difficult of times.
We know that many schools and extra-curricular organisations such as us have been quickly adapting their delivery to take into account closures due to coronavirus. Over the last three weeks we have been busy uploading content on our website so that you will have plenty of exciting things to do, even if you are not in school at the moment.
All resources are available on the Westminster Children’s University Website by selecting the For Children and Parents tab (orange, star balloon) or directly from me at Queens Park Primary School, W10 4DQ.
Arts award at home
Trinity College have produced a downloadable resource pack with a generic template log for Arts Award Discover called Discover at Home, guidance for parents, carers and children, as well as ideas for activities to complete for all parts of Discover at Home. Discover at Home is designed to be a light touch, easy to access version of Arts Award Discover to reflect the different way children and their families are currently accessing the arts and culture. Once your child has finished their log you can photograph it and email to me at swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk or deliver it to Queen’s Park directly. We are awarding 20 hours of CU time for any completed submissions.5 hours for the activity, 5 hours for reflecting, 5 hours for recording and 5 hours for sharing; this is in keeping with CU hour limits and the main objectives of arts award explore.
Dream Arts
Dream Arts is a great program of creative experiences, usually we attend in person but we are lucky to have the opportunity to access their great team remotely. Students will take part in online sessions via zoom and have a chance to explore and create together. We will award 5 hours for each session attended as each session will have a different objective and learning. Families wishing to do this will need to sign the consent form and contact the project director David Shopland via email at david@dreamarts.org.uk (Project Producer).
Virtual Tours
In Virtual Tours your children can travel to key learning and cultural destinations around the world. Eulina has created a great resource, allowing you all to continue to visit learning destinations from the comfort and safety of your homes. Just select a destination from the guide, click it and you will have direct access to your chosen tour. We are awarding 5 hours for each tour taken and an additional 5 hours for any work inspired by the virtual visit, so let your imaginations go wild! Once your child has finished their tour and creative response you can photograph it and email to me at swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk or deliver it to Queen’s Park directly. We will post the work on the website and there will be prizes for 2 winning entries. These will be announced in August.
Google Internet Legends
While I have been busily filling our lovely website with resources and information, I have been mindful of how much time we are spending online due to the current challenges we face. The web is an amazing resource full the answers to any question, but encouraging analytical thinking and keeping our young people safe is paramount. I am sharing this link for internet legends-a great resource with games and lessons for families to use at home, https://beinternetlegends.withgoogle.com/en_uk/parents completing the program will result in 10 CU hours as we will award for the doing and reflecting/sharing elements of the program.
Looking for an extra-curricular Schedule?
If you select the Parents Zone, in the For Children and Parents tab, you can access a planned daily schedule of links to work thorough with your children. These sites change the content daily so you will be able to use and re-use the schedule as much as you like. You can claim 1 hour for each activity and as they are all different, for as many as you have done.
How about some additional learning tools?
We want you to have fun learning while we are apart, to help you with this we have created the Kids Zone; if you select the Kids Zone tab, in For Children and Parents, you will have instant access to tonnes of online learning games and tools to explore. Keep a record of what you have done, we are awarding 1 hour for each piece of learning or activity and there will be prizes for the top 4 recorded learning logs. I have prepared logs for you which you can access in the parents zone or directly from Queen’s Park but if you prefer to create your own that’s fine as well you just need the day, activity and hours claimed.
What is coming next?
In the coming weeks, we will be launching a wellbeing project and a series of video and local walk routes to help you explore while you are taking your daily exercise so keep checking in with us at https://www.westminsterchildrensuniversity.co.uk/ for fun, updates and opportunities. Our friends and partners are currently getting content prepared to add to their own Parent and Kids tabs and we will update content on an ongoing basis so you’ll never run out of fun things to do together. Have fun together and stay safe.
Yours Sincerely
Stella Wilson
Hi everyone,
While I am busily filling our lovely website with resources and information I am mindful of how much time we are spending online due to the current challenges we face.
The web is an amazing resource full of every answer to any question but keeping our young people safe is paramount.
I am sharing this link for internet legends-a great resource with games and lessons for you guys to use at home ,enjoy!
https://beinternetlegends.withgoogle.com/en_uk/parents
In the for parents tab,I have uploaded the teacher and parent resources.