‘Graduation day’ for pupils as part of new scheme

YOUNGSTERS in Cardiff have enjoyed a “graduation” event at a particularly young age – after primary school pupils took part in a new scheme designed to encourage and develop a love of learning.

The Passport to the City programme is described as a key commitment in Cardiff Council’s Stronger Fairer Greener strategy. Its aim is to ensure young people from all backgrounds can enjoy all of Cardiff’s amenities.

It is delivered through the council’s new Cardiff Children’s University, a new partnership between the council’s schools, the Children’s University charity and Cardiff University.

As a result, a graduation event earlier this month officially launched the Cardiff programme and celebrated the success of more than 400 children from St Mary the Virgin CiW Primary in Butetown, St Fagans Primary, Peter Lea Primary in Fairwater and Windsor Clive Primary in Ely who have taken part in pilot schemes over the past year.

These gave pupils access to more than 90 different activities, such as fitness classes, art and music lessons, science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) modules as well as cultural and graphics design courses.

As the children took part, their activities were recorded in a Passport to the City and led ultimately to a graduation ceremony held at Cardiff University’s new Centre for Student Life, attended by the top 20% of participants in each school.

Nicki Prichard, the head of St Mary’s, said: “Around 100 of our Years Three to Six pupils took part and it has gone really well. We had some amazing visits from Professor Paul Roche who showed us telescopes and infrared cameras and gave our children a new understanding of space.”