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News and Updates from the CU team
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February News and Updates
Mon 26 Jan 2026February 2026: Westminster Children’s University Update
Hello WCU Families!
I was so pleased and grateful to see our community thrive as we move into February 2026. January marked an incredible start to the year, demonstrating how WCU provides inclusive, wellbeing-focused opportunities for children and families across Westminster.
Our Winter Camp brought together 65 children and 20 parents for trips to Zootropolis, Kew Gardens, Topsy Turvy Theatre, and Kensington Palace. These experiences gave students access to cultural and creative spaces while building confidence, social skills, and a sense of belonging. Paired with inclusive food projects, these activities reinforced emotional regulation, family connection, and positive routines, directly supporting WCU’s wellbeing and SEND-inclusive aims.
On January 29th, Year 5 and 6 students joined their peers from St Augustine’s to see the English National Opera’s HMS Pinafore at the London Coliseum. Experiencing this Olivier-nominated production with Mel Giedroyc’s wit allowed children to engage with live performance and classical theatre, increasing cultural capital and promoting joy, curiosity, and shared learning—key pillars of WCU enrichment.
We are especially proud of QP Year 6, whose three students won the ENO Poster Competition. They received certificates and a talk from Georgia Gould MP. This achievement celebrates creativity, academic engagement, and confidence, demonstrating how WCU initiatives encourage students to take pride in their accomplishments and participate meaningfully in cultural projects.
WCU attended Bett 2026, where we explored new educational resources to strengthen literacy and wellbeing. We are thrilled that Wordsmith will be visiting our schools to support both actual and emotional literacy, ensuring children develop key skills for learning and emotional self-regulation in line with WCU’s developmental priorities. Wordsmith, whose initiative promotes both actual and emotional literacy in schools, equips students with the vocabulary and communication strategies to understand and express emotions effectively, supporting wellbeing, social skills, and learning readiness. In 2026, they will be visiting our WCU schools to embed these approaches, helping children develop confidence in emotional expression, enhance peer relationships, and strengthen engagement with literacy-based learning, fully aligned with WCU’s focus on whole-child development and family-school-community wellbeing.
We were delighted to meet representatives from CH Lin Buddhist Primary School (China) at the KittenBot stand during Bett 2026. They shared innovative STEAM and STEM projects focused on pest management, giving our students insight into creative problem-solving and global approaches to science and technology. We are excited to develop international collaboration with them in 2026, including pen-pal exchanges and shared projects, fostering cross-cultural learning and broadening our students’ horizons in line with WCU’s goals of curiosity, global awareness, and STEM engagement.
The QP Art Club launched a new WCU initiative to display student-led A4 canvases across the school. This whole-school project fosters creativity, leadership, and pride, allowing students to express themselves while promoting a visually inspiring environment. In 2026, we plan to expand this project across the WCU network, reinforcing collaboration between schools and celebrating student voices city-wide.
Adults at QP and Hallfield have completed training in Compassion-Based Therapy, and in 2026 more staff will become accredited in trauma-aware, Thrive-informed, solution-focused therapy approaches. This professional development strengthens relational practice, emotional support, and wellbeing provision for children, aligning with WCU’s goals of sustainable, whole-family wellbeing and inclusion.
We have also received funding for an Electrical Safety and Neuroscience project, building on our MindUp work. This initiative encourages curiosity, STEM engagement, and mental health awareness, reflecting WCU’s commitment to combining enrichment with learning about physical and emotional wellbeing.
Our Naturehood Watch project with the Floating Classroom continues to flourish, with students participating in the Big Garden Birdwatch. Recording birds in gardens, parks, and window ledges fosters mindfulness, environmental stewardship, and citizen science skills. Such activities enhance connection with nature, promote observation and recording skills, and support wellbeing through hands-on, outdoor learning.
Looking ahead to February half-term (Feb 11–21), London is packed with WCU-approved activities. The Southbank Centre Imagine Festival offers relaxed, sensory-friendly, and BSL-interpreted events for children of all ages. From Early Weaves dance theatre and CBeebies Wildlife Jamboree to Mini SPIN, Pop-Up Parkour, and author events with Liz Pichon and Jacqueline Wilson, there is an extraordinary range of opportunities for creative expression, confidence-building, and cultural enrichment.
Term 2 of DreamArts Experiment continues at City of Westminster College. Students aged 6–12 are devising and performing their own musicals, while older students are creating immersive theatre with Les Enfants Terribles along the Paddington Canal. These projects develop collaboration, creativity, communication, and leadership skills while strengthening links between schools, WCU, and the wider community.
From opera to citizen science, STEAM collaboration to creative arts, WCU continues to provide inclusive, engaging, and wellbeing-focused experiences. Each activity reinforces our mission to empower children, strengthen family and school partnerships, and foster lifelong curiosity, resilience, and connection to the world around them.
Stay curious, keep exploring, and we look forward to seeing you at our events and clubs this February!
— The WCU Team 🎓✨
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Happy New Year !
Mon 05 Jan 2026Happy New Year! As we welcome in 2026, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past term and to share our excitement for the opportunities that lie ahead.
Last term was truly remarkable. We were thrilled to see 480 of our children showcase their enthusiasm and creativity at the IntoFilm Festivals. It was heartening to witness their engagement and passion for storytelling through film. Additionally, our Winter Wonderland Visits brought joy to 450 families. Watching the children's faces light up with wonder made the winter merrier for all of us.
Our ongoing partnerships continue to enrich our community's learning experiences. Collaborations with esteemed organisations such as the English National Opera, Apple, and Veolia have opened doors to innovative learning opportunities, coupled with practical experiences that ignite curiosity and inspire young minds.
Looking forward, we are excited to introduce our new Seasonal Wildlife Workshops on the Floating Classroom, especially designed for our Early Years. These workshops will offer unique experiences, allowing children to connect with nature and observe wildlife in a hands-on educational setting.
We are excited to share the wonderful outcomes of the Autumn 2025 art project at Hallfield Primary School, led by celebrated local artist Hermione Wood. The project, centred on the theme “At Home,” brought together a group of Year 5 and 6 pupils to explore what home means to them through storytelling, drawing, fabric art and mixed media.
Hermione opened the project by sharing a moving story from Milka, a woman in her 90s, showing the children how ideas of “home” can span generations and experiences. Inspired by this, pupils developed their own interpretations—ranging from high-rise London views to peaceful gardens, fantasy worlds and animal sanctuaries.
Across five creative sessions, students learned new artistic skills including composition, fabric painting, collage, colour mixing and developing a personal artistic style. The children also worked collaboratively, gaining confidence and forming new connections across classes.
Their reflections say it all:
“Art takes time.”
“At Home means being at peace.”
“Painting was calming—I felt creative.”
“Teamwork makes the dreamwork!”
The final fabric artworks were filled with imagination, detail and thoughtful symbolism. These pieces were also shared with the Compton Art Group, whose members were thrilled—and deeply touched—by the children’s interpretations.
This project highlighted how valuable extended, high-quality art time is in primary schools. Many pupils showed significant growth in confidence, creativity and emotional expression, demonstrating the powerful role art can play in wellbeing and learning. Great News for 2026 – Expansion to Three Schools .We are thrilled to announce that, following the success at Hallfield, Hermione Wood will be delivering new multi-week art programmes in:
• St Joseph’s Primary School
• St Mary of the Angels Primary School
• Hallfield Primary School (returning)
Starting January 2026, these programmes will continue to explore themes of belonging, home, identity and creativity—giving even more children access to high-quality arts education across our community.
This expansion marks a fantastic step forward for creative learning in our local schools and reflects our commitment to supporting children’s wellbeing, self-expression and cultural development.
We are starting the year full of arts and culture and are pleased to share that in line with this at WCU, The Fourth Plinth Schools Awards opens for entries in January 2026! It’s a chance for schools across London to get creative and produce a work of art inspired by Trafalgar Square’s famous Fourth Plinth artworks.
The London Resilience Unit and the Mayor’s Fund for London would like to hear from you their Young Londoners, about emergencies and big disruptions such as power cuts, pandemics, protests, transport strikes or extreme weather. Your views will help shape how our city plans for the future. The survey which launched in December, is anonymous, takes 5 to 10 minutes, and you can enter a prize draw for a £50 Amazon voucher: Our City Our Resilience – Young Londoner’s Survey so don’t forget to have your say.
This year we are all about carnivals and parades as part of our cultural goals, we encourage you to be part of London’s much-loved St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, 15 March 2026. We’re inviting community groups, charities, retailers, and food vendors to join a bustling marketplace filled with Irish arts, culture, flavours, and creativity.
In March we will celebrate the launch of Paddington arts Carnival Band for 2026 in preparation for our ongoing carnival plans together and celebrating the work we will begin delivering workshops and opportunities about all things carnival this January.
This year’s St Patrick’s Day parade promises a lively and colourful journey through central London, celebrating the spirit and heritage of the Irish community. Groups of all kinds are welcome to take part whether you’re performing, marching, or showcasing your organisation’s creativity. Join us in bringing energy, music, and pride to the streets as we kick off a day of festivities leading into the Trafalgar Square celebrations
Stay fully present while eating dinner as a family
We are thrilled to announce that NexAim will be returning to Queen's Park Primary and St Joseph's Catholic Primary this January! Our playtime programmes aim to provide children with a delightful mix of fun and learning, right in their school playgrounds.
At Queen’s Park Primary, our activities have always been met with enthusiasm, and we're overjoyed to bring back the joy and energy our sessions inspire. Similarly, at St Joseph's, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Teachers and parents alike have noticed improvements in the children's social skills and teamwork abilities.
NexAim’s programme is dedicated to fostering an environment where children can grow physically and mentally through engaging play. Our activities are designed to promote creativity, cooperation, and confidence among children. With these goals in place, we hope to not only enhance the school experience but also contribute positively to each child's development.
We're eager to see the happy faces of the children as they dive back into our dynamic playtime activities. Our mission of creating impactful and nurturing playground experiences continues, and we can’t wait to make more wonderful memories with everyone involved and hope to develop more activities together in the coming year.
What goals have you set up for yourself for 2026? If you haven’t any yet, don’t worry, how about picking one or two of these? Try doing a random act of kindness every week
Take full deep breaths for a few minutes every day
Notice the joy of the moment with your children
Take up a new hobby or pastime
Look at how you can live more sustainably
Set up a monthly family budget and stick to it
Make time for friends that make you laugh
Practice gratitude every day
Reduce screen time and read more books
Declutter and donate unwanted items to charity
Connect with nature by getting outdoors
Be spontaneous and try something new
Practice self-care and do something just for yourself
Celebrate and feel good about personal successes
Compassion-Based Therapy, delivered by the APT (Association for Psychological Therapies), provides staff with a practical and research-informed framework for understanding emotional regulation, resilience, and the role of compassion in learning environments. By strengthening our collective capacity to respond to stress and challenge with empathy and psychological insight, the training supports both staff wellbeing and the emotional safety of our pupils. This approach aligns with our commitment to creating a school community grounded in kindness, connection, and positive mental health practices.
We are pleased to confirm that we will be funding partners to undertake both Compassion-Based Therapy training with the APT and the MindUP programme in January 2026. This combined professional development package has been chosen to provide a coherent set of skills for supporting emotional literacy, mindfulness, and pro-social behaviour across the school. MindUP’s practical. classroom strategies complement the APT’s therapeutic foundations, ensuring that staff gain both deeper theoretical understanding and everyday tools they can use immediately with students.
Our hope is that starting this training in January will set everyone up for a fantastic school year ahead. By investing in staff wellbeing and equipping our team with compassionate, evidence-based approaches, we aim to create a calmer, more connected, and more emotionally resilient school environment. This initiative reflects our broader vision: to foster a place where both adults and children feel supported, understood, and empowered to thrive academically and personally.
Food, Health, Diet and Art at WCU: Looking Ahead to the New Year
As we step into the new year at WCU, our focus on food, health, diet, and creativity continues to grow, with an enriched programme of experiences designed to develop pupils’ wellbeing, curiosity, and cultural understanding. Our December visit to St John’s Mini Farm, where children met the chickens and the famously friendly turkey, offered a wonderfully hands-on learning opportunity. Pupils explored where food comes from, discussed farm-to-table processes, and connected this to healthy eating, ethical food production, and sustainability. Because of the enthusiasm and engagement shown, we are delighted to confirm that we will repeat this visit at Easter, expanding the programme to include observational drawing, food-themed art workshops, and cooking-linked literacy tasks.
This academic term also marks WCU’s full participation in the Plates for Change initiative and our Russell Hobbs registration, running from January to 11 March 2026. These programmes encourage pupils and families to reflect on healthy eating habits, food preparation skills, and the social value of cooking and sharing meals. Through practical activities—such as designing kitchen-safe recipes, exploring the science of nutrition, and creating art inspired by everyday food—we aim to strengthen children’s understanding of how a balanced diet contributes to long-term physical and mental wellbeing. These activities align closely with our broader curricular commitment to empowering children to make informed, health-positive choices.
Alongside this, pupils will be re-engaging with the outcomes of the Yoplait Bones Vitamin D Campaign (running from November to January), reinforcing key messages about bone health, sunlight, diet, and the role of vitamin-rich foods. This complements our earlier work on the Stalder “Future Self” Letters, where pupils wrote reflective messages imagining their healthier, more confident future identities. The findings from those letters highlight that many WCU pupils see food, movement, creativity, and emotional resilience as strongly interconnected. Bringing these elements together—farm visits, cooking projects, art, nutrition education, and personal reflection—we hope to continue shaping a school culture where children feel inspired, informed, and motivated to take care of their bodies, minds, and communities We are incredibly proud of our QPP’s & WCU’S involvement in the English National Opera (ENO) production of HMS Pinafore. This wonderful opportunity has not only brought the world of opera closer to our community but has also provided an inspiring, cross-curricular experience for QPP Year 6 students.
The WCU Coordinated Clubs at Hallfield continue to expand opportunities for hands-on, future-focused learning, with the Raspberry Pi Club now firmly established as one of the most exciting and innovative strands. By integrating digital creativity, problem-solving, and computational thinking, the club offers pupils the chance to design, build and experiment with real hardware and software tools. The sessions introduce learners to coding fundamentals, robotics, physical computing, and digital art—helping them develop both technical competence and confidence in their ability to shape technology, not just consume it.
Through the Raspberry Pi Club, pupils engage in practical challenges such as programming LEDs, designing environmental sensors, controlling motors, and even creating simple games. These activities are intentionally collaborative, allowing pupils to work in pairs or small groups, reflect on their thinking, test solutions, and troubleshoot technical issues. This mirrors real-world STEM practice and supports the development of perseverance, teamwork, and creative thinking. The club also showcases pathways into wider digital literacy, linking to computer science learning in the classroom and encouraging pupils to pursue further STEM opportunities beyond Hallfield.
As part of our engagement with the production, Year 6 were invited to take part in a HMS Pinafore design and show poster competition, giving them creative ownership and a chance to explore visual communication, artistic expression, and the themes of the opera.
The poster competition was met with enthusiasm and imagination from the QPP Year 6 cohort. Pupils were tasked with interpreting the spirit of HMS Pinafore — its characters, nautical themes, and humour — and translating that into eye-catching designs. The work they produced was thoughtful, colourful, and reflective of their own creative voices. This initiative helped deepen their understanding of performance art and allowed students to celebrate and contribute to a major cultural event in a meaningful way.
We are delighted to share that WCU has secured 100 Westminster seats for the 2026 HMS Pinafore performance. Performances were staged through the winter term and will now continue into early February 2026, providing plenty of opportunities for audiences — including school groups and families — to attend during the school year. This generous allocation ensures that our pupils, staff, and families can experience the magic of ENO live on stage together. Attending this performance will enrich our students’ appreciation of the arts, reinforce the value of their creative efforts in the poster competition, and create lasting memories as we celebrate their achievements both in and beyond the classroom
Thank you all for your continued support and involvement. It is with your partnership that we create these enriching experiences that foster lifelong learning and creativity in our children
