Children's University Passport to Learning

[Queenofthedrivensnow]

To fail to see the point of this?

The dds to stacks of extra curricular stuff but not all with providers who are part of the scheme. The actual after school activities count toward the awards but due to demand most kids only get half a term here or there of an after school club - school have made it fair at least.

So will take the dds years to get an award???

Which is just a certificate unless I'm wrong?

My youngest two children did this a few years ago.

They enjoyed keeping a log of their activities and the "graduation" ceremony was fun. After a couple of years of participating, one had enough for a "silver undergraduate degree" and one got a "gold undergraduate degree". It's fairly easy to accumulate enough hours to get the first level of awards. It was good for their confidence to have achieved something their older (more academic) siblings hadn't.

I believe it was originally targeted at areas with some social deprivation, to encourage participation in extra-curricular activities. The ceremonies were at a local FE college with links to the local university, so it's possible that they are also trying to open up wider access to HE in areas with low uptake.

Now ice poked about on their Facebook page - more helpful than the website - I see there are regular challenges and activities but the school hasn't promoted this in any way- only the stamps you get for attending activities.

They do it at my school.

My big two have both had a couple of 'graduations', but the youngest hasn't. They don't offer the same after school groups anymore so they no longer get the stamps. They do out of school groups but none of them are included - swimming lessons we go to a pool in a different authority.

The children that have had lots of rewards are the ones that do things like football or stage 'school' etc which are included in the scheme, but are also activities that are done multiple times a week.

The ceremony was quite nice - ours was at the local uni University, but I am not sure how it stands now, it is helping children to get involved in out-of-school activities.

Wondering if it's a bit focused on paid activities?

I work for a university in Scotland, if it’s the same thing as the one we run, its aim is to break down barriers to university and make young people from all walks of life feel that they can attend when they’re older.