Children's University response to report stating after-school clubs boost poorer pupils' results

by Helen O’Donnell, CEO Children’s University

This morning the BBC reported that after-school clubs and sports can improve the academic performance and social skills of disadvantaged primary school pupils. To me, and the network of 1,000 schools that the Children’s University works with in delivering many of these clubs, this is not news; this is simply our reason for doing what we do. 

To see the impact of teachers and out-of-school learning backed up by findings of researcher from NatCen Social Research, Newcastle University and ASK Research is incredibly encouraging and a reinforcement of why the work of Children’s University is vital.

What we do is simple. We work in partnership with teachers, schools and learning destinations all across the UK and beyond. We issue participating children a Passport to Learning, which is stamped just like a regular passport whenever they participate in activities at after-school classes and quality assured learning destinations. These destinations include wildlife centres, zoos, libraries and places of historical interest. Anywhere that children can learn and take part in beneficial activities can partner with us a learning destination – the list is constantly growing.

By joining the Children’s University, learning stops being something that’s contained in a classroom, and becomes something that happens anywhere and everywhere. Our work joins the dots between the classroom, museums, after school clubs, sports centres and more. Crucially, they bring back the joy to learning, boost self-confidence and, as today’s report shows, improve academic attainment.

Over 100,000 children hold one of our passports so today’s report has a huge impact on our work. Here at the Children’s University we’ve been saying for a long time that after-school activities are vital. As the Nuffield Foundation-funded report states, "More research is needed to understand the content of the after-school clubs and what it is about the experience that results in improved outcomes.". I’ll raise my head above the parapet and say now that we invite and welcome research into the impact of our work. The Children’s University network is a highly skilled and committed network and anything that shows the worth of their work is great by me.

---

To find out more about Children’s University click here.

To find out where your local Children’s University is, search here and contact them directly.

To find out about setting up a Children’s University in your school, click here.

York’s ‘CU in the City’ events – From superheroes to super snails!

Good afternoon all,

Last week, we brought you the first of a two-part post from York CU's Lucy Horsman. In that post, Lucy told us all about some of the activities made available to children at York's 'CU in the City' event last year. This time around...well, the title says it all really! Take it away, Lucy!:

York Children’s University were busy in late November running seven ‘CU in the City’ family learning events and in our first blog post we covered drama, Tansy beetles and science! For the remaining events we were joined by our partners from the University of York’s Psychology Department, Flamingo Land Resorts, and student-led creative writing group Inkwell.

The Psychology department hosted ‘Did I really see that?’ where neither children nor adults could believe their eyes! With hands-on experiments and mind-boggling illusions, the session really brought learning to life. A popular hit with the children was the magic chair that made the grown-ups shrink and children grow!

We had another evening of creative-writing fun with Inkwell, and as usual it went down a storm. Our resident superhero Ellie was on hand to help children make up their very own superhero stories and the adults even had a go as well! It was lovely to see parents and children working together, proving that leaning doesn’t stop, no matter what your age. One parent mentioned, “When the children do similar things in school I don’t get to see it, so it’s lovely to be a part of their learning”. Seven year old Rose also commented how she found the creative writing “really exciting” and can’t wait to get writing more.

Our final session was hosted by one of our newest partners, Flamingo Land. A huge range of artefacts were explored, from skulls to skins to real life mini-beasts! We tackled all sorts of questions from ‘why do snakes shed their skins?’ to ‘why do deer have antlers?’ in a quiz, and some children even had a go at handling giant African snails and giant stick insects – it was not for the faint-hearted!

Our CU in the City events are increasingly popular in York and allow staff at York CU a rare opportunity to meet some of the families involved in the scheme. Their enthusiasm for learning is infectious and it makes us want to run more and more events! Next up will be some events in June to tie in with the University of York’s ‘Festival of Ideas’, themed this year around Tick-Tock! Watch this space!

To find out more about York CU and their fantastic Learning Destinations, head to their website.

CU next time,

Ian

York’s ‘CU in the City’ events – Full of drama, bugs and interactive science!

Happy New Year one and all and welcome to 2016!

Last year was one of great change and progress across the Children's University network. Excitingly, we saw local CUs hosting their own learning events alongside those provided by traditional Learning Destinations. To showcase just one of these amazing events, Lucy Horsman, an intern at York CU, has written a couple of posts about York's project, 'CU in the City'. Without further ado, I'll hand over to Lucy for Part 1:

At York Children’s University we’re very proud of our project ‘CU in the City’, which runs in conjunction with the passport scheme. ‘CU in the City’ provides a unique range of free events that combine learning with real life experiences, all of which are hosted by our fantastic partners from local enterprises, student volunteers and academics from the University of York. The aim of the events is to give children another opportunity to earn those beloved stickers, whilst learning in new and creative ways with their families alongside them.

We ran six events through the end of November, so let’s get started with ‘Express Yourself’, a creative drama workshop with York Theatre Royal, ‘It’s a Bug Life’ with Buglife environmental charity, and ‘Science to make your hair stand on end!’ with University of York Physics Department.

York Theatre Royal kicked off our first event, ‘Express Yourself’, in the beautiful De Grey ballroom at the Theatre Royal. This was a drama session all about expression and encouraging parents and children to grow in confidence and gain some great improvisational and physical theatre skills! With plenty of high energy activities and team work, it was lovely to see parents and children spending time learning and having fun together.

Next we learnt all about York’s very own beetle, the tiny Tansy, with the Buglife charity and made ‘bug hotels’ with all the bits of twigs and foliage we could find. Six year old Francesca said “Learning that York has its own bug was the best bit!” and seven year old Maisie agreed, “it was lots of fun!”

Our third event took us to University of York for a real science lecture, with plenty of exciting experiments including balloons, a Van de Graaff generator, magnets and liquid nitrogen - even the adults were on the edge of their seats! The experiments were such a success that one little boy even asked at the end of the session, “Daddy, can we get some liquid nitrogen?” Definitely a future scientist in the making!

We were delighted by the positive feedback from parents and children, particularly the parent who said, “the children don’t even realise they’re learning” – surely a great advert for Children’s University! Stay tuned for Part 2 (arriving next week), including illusions, giant snails and superheroes - not all in the same event…!

CU next time,

Ian