News and Updates from the CU team
We have been so impressed this year about how hard everyone has worked to make sure that they’re still collecting their extracurricular hours. It’s amazed us, the commitment and hard work of all of the students adults who have managed to make this year a really successful one for extracurricular learning despite the difficulties that everyone has faced.
I will begin by talking to you a little bit about the numbers involved in this year‘s graduation, this year we will be celebrating 7 On-site graduations and there will be an amazing 1080 graduates. Indeed, the number of children who have joined us online this year has been increasing exponentially throughout 2021 and we now have 1400 online students
That’s not all, we finished our last graduation with 81,000 total extracurricular hours earned. This year you amazing lot have managed together to collect, across the 1080 graduates, an additional 33,000 hours. That now means our total now stands at 113,000 individual extracurricular hours and that is all thanks to your commitment and hard work
Because of this we would like to say a massive thank you to all of you and we hope that you will feel really proud of your achievements .Now although some of you may not be graduating this year, we would still like you to feel equally proud of all the hard work you’ve done this year keeping up with your studies and taking part in additional activities and interests which we know you have all been doing.
It’s been particularly difficult this year as there have been lots of restrictions on travel and being together and gathering together which is why today we are graduating outside and we ourselves have been spending a lot of time planning and facilitating outdoor learning .Some of you may have been to the floating classroom and if you haven’t I’m sure you will be going very soon, you may have even joined us at Forest School on Saturdays, which is another great example of outdoor learning with WCU and the floating classroom. If you haven’t yet done those things, there will be chances next year and there will be a member of the team Tim Maynard coming to visit you in your schools before you break up, which will be very exciting
This is just part of some of the work we are doing to provide you all with the opportunities to get back outside into the world and enjoy yourselves while learning. We have also identified the largest amount of hours and within your schools, as collated by your amazing coordinators; for some children there will be a small surprise gifts during gradations, just as an extra special thank you for all you have been doing.
Next academic year, we will be hoping to graduate again in February ; if you haven’t had a prize or certificate this time as you haven’t graduated, do not worry your chance will come in February and you have plenty of time from now all the way up until then to gather enough hours. Remember that six activities will give you enough credits to graduate next time we get together, hopefully in the much larger, town hall that we all love visiting.
We have lots of online projects for you to do at the Westminster Children’s University site and have created and accredited over 450 of these this year alone. You do not need a log in so get online and find something you are interested and have a go .Don’t forget to share your work back with your coordinator and you may well see it on the website if you do.
Next academic year, we will have afterschool clubs and several large outdoor learning and art projects for you to get involved in including running your own gallery, rooftop basketball, magazine publishing, textile art and outdoor learning.
We have been so pleased to see so many of you dressed up in your amazing gowns during graduations because what we are about is creating fun activities for you all and getting you thinking about your futures. With that in mind we have also have some other special guests joining us at different graduations including a filmmaking crew, are making a video about our local area which they will be sharing hopefully with you at our next graduations.
These filmmakers were actually students at one of our partner schools, St Peters. So not only is it really exciting to have them collaborate with us it was really good for graduates to be able to see how many different possibilities there are in the world for them as they grow up and that you all can become anything that your hearts’ desire.
Congratulations to everyone
What a remarkable year, full of challenges, experiences and learning we have had! We would like to congratulate you on and celebrate your amazing work by saying well done, you should all be so proud! This year, despite restrictions, we have 1080 students graduating and can add 30,000 additional hours of individual learning to our total; making our new grand total for individual learning hours 111,000.Graduations are underway as are the celebration events and we are loving sharing and recognising all of your hard work.
Holiday Club in July
We believe that by using educational experiences and outdoor learning, we can help our young people value and understand their immediate environment more fully and in a far wider, holistic manner; by doing this, we propose that we will be able to promote sustainable and purposeful behaviours as our young people mature.
We feel that influencing behaviours within waste, food and the environment at a young age is a vital way to create a sustainable change for the benefit of everyone’s future and environmental benefit. Our proposed project will go some way to educating and relieving the recent burdens on our local families, in this one of the most difficult transitionary times we all find ourselves in, creating education and support opportunities across the spectrum of participants through distribution and collection of resources, education and outreach through the collaboration of stakeholders and community cohesive approaches to delivery.
With this ethos in mind, we provide we propose to run six weeks of activity throughout the summer holiday (daily 9:00-15:30) and continue this into the new academic year (workshops and outreach) to build upon our commitment to wellbeing and transition work .We will aim to offer 28 places for each Key-stage and a further 20 spaces for early years settings and have recruited in advance a dedicated team of facilitators to meet this aim.
By adding an environmental educational element to the overall offer (this will include working in meanwhile gardens and making mini-habitats for vertebrates as well as bringing an outdoor provider into school to teach children about biodiversity and the importance of looking after the local environment) students will be educated on the symbiosis both humans and our local wildlife and environment share aiding connection and engagement while supporting transition in September.
Alongside our usual program of activities we will undertake weekly projects. We will be spending each week on a new theme. Week commencing 26/7- in the first week we will work with the ecology centre at Hyde Park; Week commencing 2/8/ Week commencing 9/8-in weeks 2 and 3 we will host a KS1 and KS2 Cycling school; Week commencing 16/8-in week 4 we will run a KS2 Basket Ball Camp: Week commencing 23/8-Week 5 we will run a gardening and community planting project and in week 6 (Week commencing 30/8), we will be looking at Wellbeing, Mindfulness and preparing for the new academic year through coaching and mentoring.
Forest School Saturdays
We have been attending Forest school in June-July and will be continuing to promote outdoor learning throughout the summer and into next term. There will additional opportunities to joining outdoor learning and weekend projects. We have been visiting the Floating Classroom who are currently facilitating these and other sessions such as Life Afloat and We like Why? We strongly recommend that coordinators sign up for sessions as soon as is possible as they are in high demand and are amazing opportunities to learn and have fun.
September, Wednesday Wellbeing Club
The Students' Wellbeing Club will run on Wednesdays at Queen's Park School from 3:30-6:00pm during term and will additionally provide holiday provision (alongside holiday play provision).The first session will be on Wednesday September the 8th 2021.
This club will be taking place at Queen’s Park school, it will run for 7 weeks at a time from 4:00-6:00pm.
We ask that participants contribute £21 to cover the resources and basic costs of this club in advance. With hourly skills coaching rates generally ranging from £15 - £35 outside of London, and up to £50 in the capital and the cost of mentoring far exceeding this (beginning at its most basic at £75 an hour), we know that access to such services and the range of programs is very limited .We have committed to this minimal fee in keeping with our goal of making provision accessible regardless of financial position.
To book into this club in advance please contact swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk
First Aid Training
First Aid training is still available for staff and students and is now underway. This is a great way to empower students and staff preparing them for all eventualities. These sessions are brought to you free of charge thanks to our ongoing relationship with Axis Training Limited. To book this training for your school advance please contact swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk and we will arrange this for you.
Mindfulness Sessions and MHFA
If you are interested in promoting and embedding mindfulness in your setting get in touch, we are happy to help you set up MISP and Mind-Up should you wish to. Additionally, if you would like to add staff mental health first aid training, we have virtual sessions for you to attend at a greatly reduced rate. To book this training for your school advance please contact bcommins@queensparkschool.co.uk and we will arrange this for you.
Mayor’s London Trails
We have been working with city hall to resource London Walk Guides for you to do during the holidays; we have them now and are ready to get them to you. So if you are interested in London Family walks please let us know and we can get these to you before you break up for the summer. They are a great way of creating mementos of walks and experiences together as well as learning more about the city and what it has to offer. To access these resources, simply email us and we will drop them off to you.
What’s next?
We have lots for you to do over the summer online and in person and will share this with coordinators before you break up. We have 5 larger-scale projects planned and ready to go for September which we will invite coordinators to express interest in before break up and sign up for in September.