Shropshire's Children's University - My First Year

It’s just over a year now since I became Chancellor of Shropshire’s Children’s University, so it feels like time for a bit of a round-up. In December I handed out Gold Awards at Keele University to children from schools in Wem, Whixall and Lower Heath [see photographs, including this one here with Peter Jones, Head of Shropshire's Children's University, and Kevin Mattinson, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Community & Partnerships at Keele University]. As with all the awards ceremonies I’ve presided over in schools and community halls it was a great occasion for celebration. Keele University went out of their way to give the award-winners a good day, so many thanks to them. We had a lunchtime reception with an opportunity afterwards for the children, their teachers and families - and me too – to lie on our backs in the the university's star-dome and explore our solar system. There was also a chance – which I missed, being in Keele University’s Observatory instead – to build a university from scratch out of Lego.
It felt like a fitting ending to a great year. The Children’s University has been running for a number of years now, but is still relatively new to Shropshire. Only eighteen months in, however, it has seventy-one learning destinations and providers county wide, with nine schools fully signed up and two thousand holders of Passports for Learning. The number of graduates to date are two-hundred and fifty, and eighteen of these have achieved Gold Awards. The Keele Graduation was preceded by one at Birmingham University, which I was unfortunately unable to attend, and currently we have three more graduations coming up before Easter.
Those are the figures. What of the children themselves, and the graduations? What are they like? Well, they have to be experienced to be believed. Late last year, St Peter’s Wem had so many children graduating and so many parents and grandparents wanting to attend that they had to hold two separate ceremonies. Their hall was packed on both occasions. The children robed up in one of the classrooms and marched in to a fanfare of cheers and claps. Peter Jones, Head of the Children’s University of Shropshire, gave a short address, as I did too, then awards were handed out, photographs taken, caps thrown in the air and the atmosphere of pride and celebration was much as you’d expect for any graduation. Afterwards the street was crowded with parents, cars, even a bus. There was no doubt, those nights, that something was going on in Wem.
So what are the children being awarded for? The Children's University is all about out of school learning activities. These can be anything from cubs and cookery to caving and football, and you can fill in the gaps between. The Shropshire Music Service is signed up as a Children’s University learning destination, so any child learning music through the Music Service will receive stamps on their Passport for Learning. Likewise the Library Service and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, and I mentioned caving because the Shropshire Caving Club is one of many learning destinations, county wide, that have joined forces with the Children’s University over the last year.
The idea is three-fold, firstly to reward children for their out-of-school learning activities, secondly to encourage those activities to be as wide as possible, and thirdly - but by no means least - to encourage children to be self-motivated in developing their interests. The Children’s University is a child-centred organization whose aim is to make available to children between the ages of five and fourteen the learning opportunities they’re asking for. This is why I agreed to become Shropshire’s Chancellor. It’s been a great first year. I’m looking forward to the year to come.
[All photographs are taken at Keele University, except the one above, which was taken at St. Peter's Wem.]