The Children’s University is an organisation which signposts your child to exciting learning activities which take place outside the normal school day – it could be before school, during lunchtime, after school, during weekends or holidays etc. The activities are all voluntary, it is up to you and your child to choose what they do and when, and the learning always has a link to something they could go on to do at a ‘grown up’ university.
A Children’s University Passport is a learning passport with your child’s name and unique registration number, valid for 3 years, which you and your child will look after. Teachers and other adults in the school will help to write the learning hours gained in clubs at school and show you how to keep a total of hours at other places like libraries and museums.
For starters, lots of after school clubs and holiday activities. Some of the activity clubs in your local area may also be Learning Destinations and there are a growing number of places such as museums and activity days which are also part of Children’s University learning. You can search for local Learning Destinations by visiting the Norfolk Children’s University website at: www.norfolk.gov.uk/childrensuniversity. There is also a Facebook page which regularly posts updates of new learning destinations. If there is somewhere that you go to and you would like to recommend it as a good place to learn, you can do so by telling your school co-ordinator (Mrs Woodhouse) or the Children’s University Manager via email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
As well as encouraging our children to become active learners and aspire to a lifelong love of learning, a Children’s University Passport also gives the holder free entry into each of the following museums: Norwich Castle Museum, Time and Tide Museum, The Bridewell Museum, Gressenhall Museum, Strangers’ Hall, King’s Lynn Museum, Ancient House, Museum of Thetford Life, The Tolhouse Museum and Elizabethan House Museum. In addition, all libraries have special Norfolk Children’s University activities including the Summer Reading Challenges. Just ask any member of staff, including mobile libraries – all the accredited activities in libraries are free.
We will check your child’s Passport to Learning and tell you when the next set of certificates will be handed out. Once you have collected 30 hours (or more) of learning in your passport, you will be invited to a special graduation day at the University of East Anglia or another campus for higher education. This is a special way of saying well done to your child for their learning.