WCU New Year Events January-March 2022

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back! We are looking forward to a fun-filled year together in 2022.

Song-Do

Song Do have created some more information and videos to enhance understanding of what they are offering out to schools. https://www.songdoo.com/for-educationWe are looking forward to working with Song Do this year so, please express your interest with us.

July Holiday Opportunities

Earlier this year, the YHA asked for feedback on whether there would be interest in arranging a group residential break as part of our YHA (Youth Hostels Association) programme and what you might like to see as part of that programme. A huge thank you to everyone that took the time to fill that survey in for us.

Express your interest now to get involved

https://forms.office.com/r/4sqMr4svEK

GreenStarz Academy

To ensure access to Physical Education Greenstarz Academy will be launching an online platform and curriculum in March alongside the Digital academy Project.

The curriculum and one-way streamed videos will challenge and engage young people through guided activities and competitions.

YouTube Digital Academy

In collaboration with the Prince's Trust, the digital academy will allow students remote access to professionals within the online community.

Students will watch streamed seminars and learn about the industry, influence and critical thinking to prepare them for engagement with the online universe.

Music and Maths at the RAH

Book up your schools free music and maths sessions available for KS1-4.Discover Music & Maths workshops are part of the Hall’s Engagement programme and are free of charge. We are unable to offer these workshops to independent schools.

We invite you to complete the Register your Interest form to indicate your school’s preferred availability.

https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/engagement/register-your-interest-discover-music-and-maths/

February Holiday Camp

Based on the success of our WCU Winter Camps we will be offering Holiday provision from 9:00am-3:45pm Monday to Friday at Queen's Park School, W104DQ.Please look out for the booking form to fill and return , we have limited spaces so get your places booked!

If you have any questions and still need to book your launch/Tim Maynard/First Aid or Ignite, please contact me on 07368103790 or swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk

Westminster Windows art competition

Submissions for Westminster Windows art competition at Christmas in Leicester Square – submit by 12 November

Westminster schools, Year 1 – Year 8, and special schools are invited to run an internal competition for their pupils to design a Winter Widow that reflects the connections made and kindness received and/or given during the pandemic. Entries are also encouraged to be a response to Global Climate Change, so where possible, please be creative and use upcycled materials. Each school can then select up to five entries for submission to the Winter Windows competition. Successful designs will be selected and enlarged to A0, framed and rear lit and displayed on the north side of Leicester Square in a free exhibition.

This year, entrants are asked to illustrate the theme of a ‘Connection and Kindness’.

•             What do connections look like to you, how do you make them and how did they make you feel?

•             What acts of kindness did you experience during the COVID-19 lockdown?

•             Did you go that extra mile and make a connection by being kind? How does being kind and making connections look and feel?

•             What colour and patterns do these feelings make you think of?

Westminster Winter Windows provides schools with a project to base art classes on and children an exciting opportunity to see their work publicly exhibited.

Project guidelines

•             Please email ruth@underbelly.co.uk to note your interest, further information will be sent to you on receipt of your email

•             One or more classes can apply per school

•             We suggest this is offered to Year 1 – Year 8

•             Please submit all entries by no later than 12 November 2021

•             All designs should be submitted on A4 or A3 paper, portrait orientation so that they can be scanned and sent to us

•             Please used upcycled materials wherever possible (ie.using scraps and left-over materials to create a collage. Pen, pencil, crayon or paint collages may also be used, but please avoid using metallic )

•             If you have more than 5 Winter Window designs from your school, please run a heat to select up to 5 window designs for submission

•             We can only accept portrait orientated applications

•             This year we can only accept entries in a digital format. Please scan your entries or send high resolution images of 100-150dpi at actual size and email ruth@underbelly.co.uk

•             Please scan each entry individually and save with the pupil’s name, age and the name of your school

•             Successful designs will be selected and informed on 14/15 November

•             Windows will be available for schools or parents to collect post event.

The event is run by Underbelly in partnership with Westminster City Council. For any queries, please contact Ruth Fisher, Event Producer at Underbelly on the details below:

Tel: 020 7307 8480

Email: ruth@underbelly.co.uk

Website: christmasinleicestersquare.com

WCC’s Climate Action Classrooms competition by 19th November for the chance to win exciting prizes

With the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently underway in Glasgow (COP 26), everyone will be thinking about how they can play their part to help to tackle climate change.

The Climate Action Classrooms’ competition aims to help Westminster schools embed the climate emergency into their curriculum, engaging students on the impacts of climate change, fostering action and long-term climate-friendly behaviours.

The Climate Action Classrooms competition gives schools and young people the chance to showcase how they’re taking action and helping to spread awareness of the climate emergency.

There’s also the chance to win fantastic to trip to either the London Zoo or the Sea Life London Aquarium!

The competition is open until 19th November for pupils in Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11).

There are two categories - classroom action for entries by a class and pupil action for entries by an individual pupil.

Visit the website Climate Action Classrooms competition | Westminster City Council for full details of how to enter, prizes and terms and conditions.

Please share this with your geography and science teachers and encourage them to enter the competition.

If your school is taking part, please let our Climate Emergency Team know by contacting climateemergency@westminster.gov.uk.

Where possible, Cllr Robathan Leader of Westminster City Council, would welcome the chance to meet with you and your students to raise awareness about the climate emergency. Please do contact the Climate Emergency Team by 5th November, if it would be possible to arrange a visit.

We hope that the competition will be the start of continued engagement between WCC and Westminster schools on climate education, opening up opportunities for further curriculum support and climate action in the future.

Climate Change Awareness and Community Clear Up project

Westminster children’s University is an aspirational and extracurricular project created in response to the desire to provide free aspirational and educational opportunities for the young people of London. The project seeks to engage young people in activities that will help them transition from primary to secondary school and then maintain the positive trend in transitioning to further education and adult life. Our intention was to create a Multi-Disciplinary Project which would promote inclusion by including Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Visual elements to the overall project.

Sculpture, recycling and awareness

As part of our Climate Change Awareness and Community Clear Up project, year 5 visited the three recycled lions at Wembley Stadium last Friday. Faith Bebbington used waste cardboard, plastic cups and broken plastic seats from the venue in Wembley to create the two new pieces of art, which complement the existing recycle stainless steel lion made by artist Michael Turner currently guarding the ground. Ms Bebbington said: “I was delighted to be commissioned by the FA Group to create two lions for Wembley; partly as the stadium is such an iconic site and because I prefer my artwork to be accessible to the majority of people - rather than just art gallery goers. 

Due to the kindness of one of our partners at Paddington Central Cognizant and the football Association we were able to bring the entire year group to the stadium on a stadium tour where they were able to visit the amazing beasts in person we feel that engaging children in artistic and creative endeavours is a great way for them to further explore the themes and topics which are most important such as in this case, climate control and what we can do about it.

Part of the beasts' internal structure is made from willow, used to create the curved shapes, and the rest from reclaimed wood collected by the artist. The standing lion has cardboard ‘fur’ while the sitting lion has 'fur' made of broken red plastic stadium seats, used plastic beer bottles, wooden knives, straws, cardboard food wrappers and used paper cups. Fishing line, parcel tape, and hot glue were used to stitch and stick the fur together, and the animal's eyes were made from eco laundry balls. Our friends at Veolia ,who we will be doing a community clear up with on the 18^th, helped out too, All the waste was carefully hand-washed by the Veolia contract manager for Wembley Stadium before being delivered to Ms Bebbington. This was another element of the Lions sculpture which anchored their relevance to our awareness project and the over theme of the action we wish to take.

Creativity and sharing a message

There are a variety of ways to communicate with your audience, but one of the most beneficial is by using posters and visuals that can clearly display your message. When used correctly, these can catch the eyes of people and make them aware of an issue, product or service that they wouldn’t otherwise have known about. This powerful ability to stick in people’s minds can have huge advantages for any group looking to create awareness. As a year group we explored the key themes we wanted to raise awareness of and as a class designed Climate Action posters and planned a community event to further illustrate visually a need for change.

One of the key themes we have been focussing on is, how we can personally and as a group make difference to avoid further climate change? The posters and action the children have planned and produced use the key elements of successful poster making and are intend to communicate clearly which aspects of the theme spoke most to them. We then put these posters up around our school and made them publicly available on our website for maximum exposure. We then communicated with our partner schools to engage them in designing their own posters too as well as the next step in the planned project and promoted exploration of and engagement with the topic.

 As an educational charity ourselves, we are invested in the enrichment of offer for and promotion of Volunteering and social action within younger cohorts; we are dedicated to offering a wider spectrum of learning experiences for the young people of Westminster. In the last year alone, we provided and 111,000 hours of extracurricular activity for the children of our partner schools. This means a target audience of at least 1600 students. We felt that this wider platform was a perfect way for the students to safely and confidently spread their message and recruit the further engagement of peers.

Repurposing food

Based on our own experiences through lockdown, we are aware that there is a high percentage of socio-economic need in our ward (in fact we are within the top 4% nationally for socio-economic challenge). Throughout lockdown we were able to create a network of volunteers and stakeholders who work together, through us, to collect and re-purpose wastage food .We did this by working closely with Fare share and Food Drop; as well as using the online platforms Neighbourly and Olio facilitate wider sharing and enable a diverse resource network.

Through the hard work of our volunteers, we have been able to re-purpose 70 tons of wastage food through food drop alone. Our work with neighbourly has had a similar outcome, 41.4k meals shared and a further 176k of water saved through Olio. We are currently continuing our relationship with Neighbourly and Marks & Spencer and continue to redistribute waste food (preventing it going from the shop to landfill and seeing repurposed); answering local food needs, as communicated to us in our locality.

 Our year 5 have regularly been helping to unload and build weekly food parcels for our school and local community. This element of the overall project was inspired by the work initiated through the Mayor’s Fuel for schools project back in 2018 and we have continued to feed 20 families weekly through our own school food parcels (which we continue to deliver to the present day).

We are aware of the negative stigma wrongly attached to accessing what is sometimes considered free food through projects such as ours. We, as does the fuel for school project, believe in educating young people early in the environmental impact and benefit of repurposed seeing Food which will otherwise go to waste it is vital that our young people understand the wrong created by the processing of waste food and the waste itself. By looking at and taking part in repurposing this food for the prevention of these negative outcomes we are able to reduce the stigma felt in accessing such resources. This is particularly important as we are aware that there is a great need for additional services and food as we have seen through direct requests and signposting that has come to us for food support through the recent crisis. We believe that by actively taking measures to reduce this as a community we can make a positive difference to the amount of waste that occurs locally and we can encourage sustainable behaviour changes in the future.

 Furthermore, we believe that by using educational experiences 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.

We have also been working with Joseph Dunston to distribute warm meals after school as part of our community action and year 5 have been actively engaged in this too ,handing out portions and creating interest each Thursday, after school. Our project, just as others do, will go some way to educating and relieving the recent burdens on our local families, 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.

Community Led Social Action and Partnership

This November 18th we will be working with Millie Kent of the Climate Action Coalition to conduct a community based litter pick in collaboration with Queen’s Park Community Council. Millie Kent and Volunteers from Veolia will visit all of our local venues with our students on a giant litter pick .By sharing our project so far we will also be joined by Eco Committee students Essendine, St Mary of the Angels and St Peters Schools. The students will create poetry on the day as they reflect, to later be set to music and shared at Paddington Central by our choir in December. This will create a full day of community action with each year group and Sub-Committee taking direct social action on litter, pollution and Climate change.

We will collect the rubbish in a central public location to generate community awareness of littering and waste and to further influence more positive future behaviours by raising awareness through visual means as was intended by the three lions sculpture. We will record and share the day’s activities as well as gathering feedback which we will also upload to our main site. Our intention is for this project to be repeated yearly and be student led, to generate larger and more diverse actions.

All photos and Comms to be found at : https://www.westminsterchildrensuniversity.co.uk/forest-schoolclimate-actionecology-awareness-activ/

Westminster Children's University October Holiday News

Hello everyone, wow it’s October! As the autumn break arrives we think it’s a great time to get exploring online and locally, so we have compiled our favourite opportunities for you to get involved with. We have some youth focussed and family events for you all and have included all you need to book up too, we hope you have a great break and find an activity (or two) that you really enjoy.

All of these activities are within walking distance for those in Queen’s Park and are completely free to all who attend.

Online Fun

Join in with WCU online*(Blue 7107) at:

https://www.westminsterchildrensuniversity.co.uk

Check out our newsletters and the many ideas for activities during the holidays all of which will earn you hours, you might even see yourself or work there too! We understand the need to inspire, challenge and empower young people. We look for opportunities for you all to gain further experiences to enrich your learning. We want to enrich their learning through links with Universities and places of interest, after school clubs hosted across a range of schools and workshops provided by local businesses and specialist providers.

*(Blue 3690) Register with the Dirt is good academy at:

 https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/dirtisgoodacademy

The Dirt Is Good Academy is a brand new, free learning portal for kids who want to change the world! Our planet is an amazing place! But sadly, there are lots of threats that people, wildlife and the planet face today. Problems like this can feel big and scary and almost impossible to solve. Well, the good news is, you can make a difference, and that’s where the Dirt Is Good Academy comes in! Full of amazing videos, fantastic facts, brain-boggling puzzles and hands-on, real-life challenges, the Dirt Is Good Academy is a training platform for kids who want to change the world for the better, a.k.a. Change makers!

You’ll learn about topics like global warming, green energy, water scarcity and plastic pollution, and you’ll discover your very own Change maker personality and matching avatar – who’ll accompany you on your Change maker mission!

By joining the Dirt Is Good Academy, you’ll be joining forces with other kids around the world to make the world a better place

*(Red 5206) Explore NatGeo Kids at:

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/

National Geographic Kids is a children's magazine published by the National Geographic Society. Its first issue was printed in September 1975 under the original title National Geographic World. Visit them this holiday online to “Experience the coldest continent on the planet” in this month’s episode of “Destination World.” Even though the blistering cold keeps away all but the most adventurous explorers and scientists, a few surprises still hide above and below the ice in Antarctica!

*(Red 5257) Brush up on your coding at:

https://hourofcode.com/uk

The goal of the Hour of Code is not to teach anybody to become an expert computer scientist in one hour. One hour is only enough to learn that computer science is fun and creative, that it is accessible at all ages, for all students, regardless of background. The measure of success of this campaign is not in how much CS students learn - the success is reflected in broad participation across gender and ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and the resulting increase in enrolment and participation we see in CS courses at all grade levels. Millions of the participating teachers and students have decided to go beyond one hour - to learn for a whole day or a whole week or longer, and many students have decided to enrol in a whole course (or even a college major) as a result. Use the link to access favourites like A.I for oceans, Dance Party and Star Wars.

Check out local learning destinations using the Children's University Site and visit.

https://www.childrensuniversity.co.uk/

*(Red 9617) Sports and Holiday Clubs

https://www.qpghub.com

QPG is a not-for-profit organisation, which started with a couple of local Community volunteers providing free weekly football sessions in Queen’s Park - with the intention of it being a small weekly gathering in order to promote healthy and active lifestyles - and almost two years later, the founder has opened a brand new Community Hub on Kilburn Lane. Visit the QPG Hub for holiday fun. Call them on: 020 8616 2170

Text on: 07802 826 609

Email QPG Hub: info@qpghub.com

*(Green 7285) Library Fun

Visit Queen's Park Library they have a wide range of workshops available and if you want to travel a little further, attend a Creepy-crawly Halloween workshop with @ZooLabUK , Next Tuesday 26 Oct, from 4pm to 5pm at Church Street Library. It will be a spook-tacular Halloween workshop, you can meet some amazing crawly creatures! To get involved in this Family community event, email: churchstreetlibrary@westminster.gov.uk to book your place

Celebrating Black History Month

On the 23^rd of October Councillor Brian Nicolas is hosting a Black History Month Event*(Blue 0298) at the Porchester Hall Queensway W25HS. It runs from 6-11:00pm and is completely free. Contact Brian at brian@communityforall.co.uk or call direct on 07961359734 for music, dance and fun.

On Friday 29^TH of October at the Beethoven Centre, Third Avenue W104JL there will be a community event Proud to be Black in Queen’s Park *(Blue 0298). So if: Food, Poetry, Art, Music and Photography are your thing visit with your family. 

Email shuwanna@queensparkcommunitycouncil.gov.uk to book your spot!

*(orange4969) Local Parks and Garden’s

Sign up for the Wild Challenge- *(Blue 4471) and use the challenges to explore local parks .Go online at

https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-families/family-wild-challenge

The Woodland Trust-*(Orange 1999) has a huge range of outdoor (and indoor) activities and challenges. From Magical fairy doors to Messy mud pies, they’re packed full of outdoor fun. Search -treetoolsforschools.org.uk they also have crafts that you can make with objects you collect on your walk. As well as worksheets you can fill out to identify trees, seeds and flowers.

Remember that Paddington Recreation Ground has lots of fitness resources and Queen's Park has its own petting zoo, all are completely free!

Happy Lizzy Events

St Jude’s Hall, 71 Ilbert Street, W104QH

Saturday 30^th October 6pm-8pm

Sunday 31^st October 5pm-8pm

Come to St Jude’s for a spooky, interactive Halloween trail for W2, W9, W10 residents.

Culture Club

St Jude’s Hall, 71 Ilbert Street, W104QH

 2pm-5pm

Tuesday 26^th October

Thursday 28^th October

Half term activities, discussion and fun at St Jude’s.

*We are including Stamp Codes for these activities so you can claim your WCU hours online as you go on the Children’s University Site

Hi all !

A big virtual hug and hello from WCU

We are pleased to announce a brief outline of our 100% Free, October-December Offers so far with WCU.

1. After the holidays, we will be offering in-school activities 
2. Mon/Wednesday/Friday are free for booking :Arts Award ,School /Eco-Council (set up and sessions) or Mind-Up/Mindfulness
3. My Dog mentoring training with the amazing Jenny Duckworth is complete, so if you'd like a class visit from a "school doggo" and Hector a Dog's Tale (dog story) author, do let me know.
4. I am also available to deliver teacher inset training on Mind Up so again, please get in touch to book.

Last academic year we spoke about re-launches (and for Our Lady a Launch).

Please book these with me anytime from today 

1. For interested parties Biblio Buzz is launching at Alexander Palace They are keen to engage all schools but will be of particular interest to   Haringey Schools 
2. In November it’s the  Into-film Festival ,Here you can book out a whole Cinema for your school -FREE
3. Below is a table of still free bookings

I have some spaces on my personal bookings so if they are of interest get in touch!

Event name: Trolls World Tour

Location: Vue Shepherds Bush, West 12 Shopping & Leisure Centre, Shepherds Bush Green, Shepherds Bush, London, W12 8PP, England

Date: 15 Nov 2021

Time: 10:00 - 11:35

Certificate: U  -250 seats

Get involved if you can its great 

I have free seats at my bookings too as you can see, so have a  look and if you're interested ,we can see what we can do 

1. If you'd like a coding experience at Paddington Central for a class or two please speak to me, Lucy Dillion is amazing and Finastra are taking visits again
2. Cognizant have a full package of things STEAM /Coding opportunities for Secondary students please let me know if it is of interest -Cognizant Ignite. It’s more STEM-focused than before and the goal is to get more students to pursue STEM careers by creating awareness and excitement about the subjects. I will send you a direct booking link and brochure if you let me know you are on-board.​
3. I have two authors waiting to come and give class talks/resources please let me know if this is of interest so I can book for you 
4. Tim Maynard has some availability too 
5. Here at QP (W104DQ)
6. We are opening clubs to all schools so of brochure of these will come your way in late October
7. We will have a holiday club in October from 9-3:30 
8. I will send booking forms 1 week before break up 
9. Online we will pilot an online cooking and wellbeing club with pre-recorded content for access to this (in late October) in your own after school provision, please contact me directly 
10. Dream Arts Are Back; we run a pick up and drop off service from QP 9:30-15:30.Or parents can access directly 

We’re back!

Welcome back everyone, here we are at the start of a whole new academic year.

We have lots to share with you all and are really looking forward to working together on some great new opportunities for the autumn/winter terms.

To book CPD and Visits, please email direct at swilson@queensparkschool.co.uk.

To access online activities please find us at https://www.westminsterchildrensuniversity.co.uk

Noble Manhattan

Are you interested in CPD for aspiring coaches and mentors?

If you are looking to accredit and upskill in this area we have some highly sought after and fully funded spaces with Noble Manhattan, the U.K's only accredited coaching trainers.

Contact me directly and ASAP to get your place on the coaching foundation course and be part of this great movement to bring in- house ,accredited and trained coaches to schools.

Mind-Up

We can now offer teacher training and insets for Mind Up, if you are interested in accessing this please let us know; this program is a reliable way to support wellbeing and mindfulness in whole school settings and we are excited to help support others in their own Mind-Up Journeys.

In-School Activities

From November onwards we are available to deliver Arts Award and Mindfulness in your settings. This will be available in 7 week blocks.

Please feel free to contact us with your preferences for the timing, theme and frequency of the sessions required.

We also have providers ready now to come and visit your schools to deliver workshops, these are one-off opportunities.

We currently have available:

• Tim Maynard -Invertebrates and Ecology (X2, 1 hour slots),
• L French -Youth First Aid (Day Training available)
• D Ackerman -1 hour author workshops
• Renata (Hector and Friends)-1 hour author workshops