Graduation, Validation and Accreditation-a busy January

Hello Again

Welcome to this the second Shropshire CU Blog.
First off I would like to apologize for all the typos in the first Blog. I didn't realize I couldn't alter anything once published! I will try to minimize these this time around.


January has been a very busy month for Shropshire CU.

On the 11th January we held our first graduation ceremony ever.

The event took place in the evening at Saint Peter's CE Primary School in Wem. Saint Peter's was the first school to sign up to Shropshire Children's University in May 2011 and it now has 11 validated out of school clubs validated. Wem is a bit of a CU hot spot with the Parish Church, Wem Town Hall and Myhstories all validated. (We are also in talks with the scouting groups, theatre groups and sports clubs in and around Wem).

Lily,Erin and Aimee proudly display their awards

51 Children graduated that night with 51 bronze certificates and a further 2 silver certificates presented by Shropshire CU Chancellor Pauline Fisk. The ceremony was well attended by the friends and families of the graduates as well as local councillors including the mayor of Wem. The Shropshire Star ran articles both prior to, and after the event.

More Pictures

Pauline Fisk has reflected on the event in her blog

Hard on the heels of graduation followed a validation visit to Cleobury Mortimer Primary School. The school has a total of  five clubs validated at present with several more validations currently underway. More about Cleobury Mortimer later.

Following on from Cleobury Mortimer we finalised validation of Shropshire Wildlife Trust activities for the Darwin Festival to be held in Shrewsbury in February.

We have also validated Shropshire Libraries activities.

There are validated sites at Albrighton,  Bayston Hill, Bishops Castle, Bridgnorth, Broseley, Church Stretton, Cleobury Mortimer, Craven Arms, Ellesmere, Gobowen, Highley, The Lantern-Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Much Wenlock, Mobile Libraries, Oswestry, Pontesbury, Shawbury, Shifnal, Shrewsbury, Wem and Whitchurch.


Activities validated include:

• becoming a library member
• summer reading challenge, 
• homework clubs, 
• volunteering, 
• work placements 
• becoming a library assistant. 

 Full details are on the Shropshire CU website with appropriate links.

On the19th January I attended Quality in Study Support (QiSS) critical friend training at Staffordshire University. This means that I am now accredited by QiSS to act as a critical friend for schools and other education providers going through the QiSS recognition process. It is hoped that in the near future we will be able to incorporate this service into the overall Shropshire CU offer to schools and providers in some form.

The YHA at Coalbrookdale is now a validated Learning Destination. The YHA can only offer activities for group bookings staying at the YHA. Details of the offer and links are on the providers page of the Shropshire CU website.

Many of you may wonder what on earth is going on in the above picture.

Well quite obviously I'm being a druid at Cleobury Mortimer Primary School. What else!
We were kindly invited by Bavita Williams (Headteacher) and staff to provide an assembly to launch CU at the school on 23rd January, which we duly did and were rewarded by a attentive and enthusiastic welcome from pupils and staff....as well as some very nice cake.

We will be contacting other schools and potential providers in the South east of the county shortly with a view to building validated provision in the communities.

As always we are in discussions with  providers and schools wishing to join the Shropshire CU Community and more details of these will appear as we validate provision.

A date for provider diaries is the 6th February 2012.
We have been asked to provide a providers fair at Sundorne School and Sports College.
The school is a member of Shropshire CU and has over 200 pupils with passports. The fair will be frequented by staff, pupils, parents and staff from neighbouring schools. This is a great opportunity for newly validated and the holder hands to promote there services to individuals and to schools.

We are in a bit of a quandary having outgrown the original space allocated we have been put in the school hall. It would be good if we could get as many providers as possible to fill up the space.

If you can make it please let me know ASAP.

That's all for now...but watch this space for further development!

Pete