Sheffield Children’s University celebrates successful 2020 as thousands learn outside school hours despite pandemic

The Children’s University (CU) is a national charity which works with schools to encourage participation in extra-curricular activities, with children earning CU credits and attending graduation ceremonies when they have reached a target number of activity hours.

Like many though, it has been forced to adapt its offer this year to support schools and families through lockdown, with schools being closed and learning disrupted.

Sheffield CU said it is built on the belief that learning can take place anywhere – including at home and online – and its children, families, schools and approved activity providers have proven just that.

For the first-time ever, this year it produced over 100 home learning challenges all of which were created by the team and published daily from March as lockdown got underway.

Senior project officer for Sheffield CU, Helen Oades, said: “Very quickly, we developed some individual learning challenges that families could do independently at home.

"As a team we’ve never really devised our own activities as such and we were really conscious from the word go to make sure they were as accessible as possible to as many families as possible – being very conscious that not everyone lives in a house with a garden, some live in a flat with not even a balcony sometimes.

"Equally, we were developing challenges they could do at home without many resources or equipment. We thought it would see us over a month or so but the uptake was absolutely phenomenal, we were publishing them on social media and emailing them to our parent carer lists but also schools were picking them up as well.”

Challenges ranged from creating their own obstacle course and making memory maps to learning sign language and doing superhero yoga.

A total of 2,862 activities have been registered with Sheffield CU this year – an increase on 2019 and a testament to the commitment shown by children and young people even while at home.

Three brand new virtual graduation ceremonies also took place this year due to Covid-19 restrictions and 2,000 Gold awards, 3,000 Silver and 3,700 Bronze awards were issued.

Graduates were invited to take part in the ‘create your own’ CU graduation ceremony home learning challenge – celebrating with their family with them, creating their own stage, and making their mortarboard to throw.

The ceremonies, which were all recorded before, also featured performances and special speeches from VIPs such as children’s author David Walliams and HM Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, Andrew Coombe.

Katie Hamshaw, senior project officer for Sheffield CU, added: “We thought it was really important to continue to celebrate their learning because that is what Children’s University is built on, that learning can happen anywhere.

"We tried to pack in as much value as we possibly could into that experience for children and young people. It was just about trying to recreate our ceremony but offer our congratulations as well.

"In all, I think about 3,500 children and young people have been celebrated in that way and that’s through their schools, if they are registered with CU, but also children who have independently taking part.”

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.