It’s been a real pleasure to work on this pilot project with both excellent teams at Wrexham and Bangor University, and to meet the children and young people as well as teachers, headteachers and classroom assistant that lead the way in inspiring the young people of Gwynedd and Anglesey. They are the next generation that can make a difference in the world, large or small. The Children’s University encourages persistence in trying new things by enjoying the process of learning and taking on challenges. Congratulations to them all for graduating!”
Nina Ruddle, Head of Public Policy Engagement at Wrexham University, said: “We are incredibly excited for our North Wales Children’s University graduation ceremonies, which will recognise and reward the young people who have taken part and achieved 30 hours or more of additional learning activities. We hope it will be an event that gives them that special sense of achievement but also belonging within a higher education setting.
“This work is part of our commitment to supporting the communities we serve across the region, created through strong partnership and collaboration with a wide range of organisations all working to create change to support children and young people.
“Our aim now is to develop this work further across North Wales to support leadership, mental wellbeing and a love of learning for young people that connects all of our community resources together. This is a really inspiring way to enable young people to develop life skills and create broader opportunities to shape the learning children and young people want together.”
Following a successful pilot of the Children’s University initiative across Wrexham and Flintshire last year, the scheme expanded across North Wales
between September 2023 through to this month, thanks to funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).
This funding enabled Prifysgol Wrecsam/Wrexham University to work with Bangor University and as a key collaborative partner and a number of other regional partners to roll out the scheme to more than 50 schools, as part of a shared civic mission to work in partnership to end social inequality in the region.
A total of 147 learning destinations were recruited across Wrexham, Flintshire, Conwy, Denbighshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey as part of this latest roll-out of the Children’s University in North Wales.
Professor Andrew Edwards, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Civic Engagement at Bangor University, added: "We look forward to welcoming young people, their families and teachers to Pontio, Bangor University for the Children's University graduation ceremony.
“The programme is a great opportunity to support children's enthusiasm for learning, and through our research on the scheme, we look forward to learning more about how we can give the children and young people of the region the best extracurricular learning activities and experiences."
