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.