Children’s University Trust is the charity at the heart of the Children’s University network. Our vision is simple: a world where every child has equal opportunity to unlock their full potential through learning beyond the classroom.
Children’s University encourages, tracks, and celebrates learning that takes place beyond the classroom. While curriculum time remains the focus of the formal education system, we know that time spent wisely beyond the classroom holds unlimited potential for life-changing experiences, skills development, and social mobility. What the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent closure of schools has highlighted, is the very real need for organisations like ours that work to give structure and recognition to what children do beyond the classroom. We are needed now more than ever.
We run a long-established Passport to Learning programme that is proven to have a huge positive impact on children. We currently reach over 110,000 children each year through a consortium of close to 60 local delivery partners. These partners are typically universities, further education institutions and Local Authorities. All are not-for-profit and all are committed to equality of opportunity for the children in their area and encouraging limitless learning beyond the classroom. We also run a digital platform, Children’s University Online, that works alongside our passport scheme offering children a safe and secure space to record their participation, while also providing schools, partners and policy makers with actionable data that helps inform and improve provision.
With children only spending 9% of their waking life in a classroom by the time they turn 18, Children’s University offers a framework for unlocking the potential held in the remaining 91%. It is a framework that complements and ties together existing extra-curricular initiatives, programmes and activities and enables educators to get a clear picture of availability of opportunity in their area as well as participation rates. An Education Endowment Foundation evaluation proved the impact that participation in Children’s University has on closing the attainment gap between children on Free School Meals and their more advantaged peers. Right now, the rich-poor attainment gap in primary school is 9.3 months growing to more than 18 months at GCSE. Coivd-19 is exacerbating that attainment gap like never before.
Children’s University is open to all but retains a focus on working in areas of disadvantage and with children facing any barriers to learning beyond school. Across the country Children's University works particularly well when focused on areas of social disadvantage. We know that by targeting these areas, Children's University can achieve the greatest social impact on the children with greatest need. We specifically target areas that are ranked highly in the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and areas where there is a correlation between Free School Meals and poor access to Higher Education. We also target Opportunity Areas and children facing non-geographic disadvantage through strategic partnerships with Local Authorities and Higher Education providers focused on greater inclusivity. One of our current priorities is to open up Children’s University Online to those children beyond the reach of our current partners – this will truly make us accessible to all.
Children’s University in numbers
Our impact and evaluation
We know what we do works and has an incredible impact on the lives of children from more disadvantaged backgrounds in particular. Follow this link for more on each of these reports and their key findings.
