Passport to the City: Cardiff Children’s University visit the Welsh School of Architecture

More children and young people are benefitting from a wealth of learning experiences, resources and opportunities through a formal partnership agreement between Cardiff Council and Cardiff University, Passport to the City: Cardiff Children’s University.

The flagship project aims to encourage and develop a love of learning by providing pupils with access to activities including art and music, science, technology, engineering and maths as well as cultural and graphics design courses, each contributing towards a ‘Passport to Learning’. The scheme brings together a range of city-wide partners to invest in raising the aspirations of leaners, whilst developing pathways to make these aspirations a reality.

An initial pilot scheme held in 2022 saw more than 400 children across the city get involved with in-person and virtual sessions, with new online learning resources being developed to facilitate many more children to participate in the future.

Based on positive feedback from participating schools, even more children are now benefitting from gaining a range of skills and experience, as well as exciting insights from some of our leading academics.

On 23 March, 54 Year 6 pupils from two schools from the Pentwyn area of Cardiff – St David’s Church in Wales Primary School and Bryn Celyn Primary School – visited Cardiff Business School. The children enjoyed varied sessions provided by the Schools of Business, History and Modern Languages. The children visited a hedgehog garden, built bug hotels, and learned about invertebrate species and animal biobanking. They also enjoyed a journey back to medieval times making chainmail armour as well as learning all about language trees.

In the latest series Passport to the City: Cardiff Children’s University activities, Year 3 and 4 pupils from St David’s Church in Wales Primary School and Bryn Celyn Primary School, visited the School of Architecture on 26 April 2023. Over 60 pupils become architects for the day engaging in a spaghetti bridge workshop to design a bridge to cross the River Taff using weights to test its strength.

Professor Les Baillie, leading the project on behalf of the University said: “We recognise the important role Cardiff University has to play in supporting and inspiring young people from our diverse communities to expand their learning both within and beyond the classroom to help fulfil their true potential. Our Passport to the City - Cardiff Children’s University activities align perfectly with the new Curriculum for Wales and provide opportunities for children to join up their acquisition of knowledge, experiences and skills which could one day lead them to study at university”

Cardiff University’s Centre for Student Life will host a Passport to the City: Children’s University graduation ceremony for participating children and their grown-ups from across the city in June 2023.

Get involved

Are you an academic school interested in hosting and delivering Children’s University activities in-person or online?

Are you a primary school interested in taking part in the Children's University?

Contact the Children’s University team: info-childrensuniversity@cardiff.ac.uk