Hello All

As you probably remember Shropshire Children’s University was launched last year at St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Wem  with great ceremony and a visit from Ger Graus the CEO of the CU Trust nationally.

Since then we have spread our net across the county: Our most northern school is Whixall CE Primary School and our most Southern is Cleobury Mortimer Primary School. So a pretty good spread (112 miles round trip for those of you interested!)

As luck would have it the week leading up to our birthday (26^th May ) is a busy one. We will be holding our second graduation ceremony at Saint Peter’s in Wem on Wednesday 23^rd May with circa 60 graduands. We have our first gold graduate at this ceremony.

On Friday we are at Cleobury Mortimer Primary School where we will be taking part in the Summer Fair. Whack it Smack it and Enginuity will be offering validated learning activity and Shropshire Wildlife Trust will also be there.

We will also be announcing rather special birthday wishes we have received during the course of the week and maybe unveiling some new logos and icons, which I think you’ll like.

These will be used in conjunction with the national logos.

In June we have graduations at Whixall Primary School and Lower Heath as well as our first Gold Graduation Ceremony which will be hosted by the University of Birmingham on 27^th June. Those children who have attained a Gold Award from the three graduating schools will travel to the Edgbaston campus for a VIP visit with tours, activities and a special graduation ceremony in one of the university’s iconic buildings.

 We have had some press coverage over the last week with a short article in the Shropshire Star on Tuesday 15^th May and a not so short interview (time bar 1.11.14 is the start) with yours truly on the Jim Hawkins show on RadioShropshire Thursday 17th May.

New Providers and Schools

We now have seven schools signed up and active with several in the wings. We look forward to welcoming Harlescott Junior School on board very shortly.

As a result of the radio broadcast we are now talking to several potential providers who got in touch after the show. We have also invited representatives from providers and destinations that parents and children have told us they think we should be validating to graduation ceremonies.

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We are also in the process of validating Bearstone and Napley Farm on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border as a learning destination and provider. As a working farm this will only be open to organised group visits.  

We have validated more provision within Shropshire Libraries including organised visits, craft activities and author visits and workshops. We have also increased the number of credits available for completing the Summer Reading Challenge. It is now worth 6 credits.

Also a reminder to everyone that Snailbeach Lead Mine and Wem Cricket Club were validated last month and offer CU credit for some activities.

As always we are talking to a number of schools and providers whom we hope to welcome aboard shortly. We are also interested in what our current providers are up to and what events they have organised that we can publicise to other CU members and our passport holders.

Also, just a quick thank you to all our members and partners for making our first year such a special and successful one and of course a big thank you to all those children who get involved in the activities-after all they are what it is all about

That’s all for now

Pete