Children from schools across Manchester come together to mark their Saturday School success with a graduation celebration.
Recently, local school children, their families and friends came together to celebrate and reflect on their success in a pioneering partnership programme. Delivered by academics and students from Manchester Met Faculty of Education and Manchester United Foundation, The Institute for Children’s Futures (ICF) School of Children’s Futuresis a first of it’s kind programme helping to support local school children across the city in their learning and confidence building.
The School of Children’s Futures is an enrichment programme designed to raise literacy levels, develop oracy skills, and build confidence in Year 4 pupils from schools across Manchester. This included schools in Moss Side, Hulme, Rusholme and Whalley Range.
In partnership with Manchester United Foundation, the programme aims to provide a fun, engaging and inclusive environment for pupils. Through their established programme of projects, that embed football and community engagement, the Foundation worked with academics and students from Manchester Met Faculty of Education to deliver an exciting programme that brought children to Manchester Met’s Brooks Building every Saturday for 10 weeks.
Many schoolchildren across the city region face barriers linked to confidence, literacy, and access to engagement opportunities. The School of Children’s Futures offers a welcoming environment where they can learn new skills, start to build their self-belief, and think about their next steps into further education and beyond.
The programme aims to support children who may face barriers to academic success, which many schoolchildren across the city region experience, with a focus on creativity and identity. By using hands-on, cross-curricular learning, including art and design, children worked toward a final project. Each session is rooted in a theme, helping children to find their voice and celebrate their personal identity. This included activities focusing on their local communities, nature and the environment and inspirational speaking.
The Saturday School also provided invaluable work experience opportunities for current Manchester Met students studying education. The lessons were delivered by students and Teaching Assistants, supervised by Faculty of Education academics, and went towards their course placements.
Karen Tuzylak, Programme Leader of the Saturday School, explains:
“Each Saturday begins with a short assembly which introduces the theme of the week, before the children move into their lessons. Over 10 weeks, the activities build towards this special exhibition and graduation celebration. It’s been great to see the children thriving, developing new skills week on week and becoming much more self-confident.”
The graduation event was opened with a short film screening that reflected on the programme and the children’s progression each week. Followed by the ceremony itself, where the children dressed up in gowns and caps, shook hands with Saul Becker, Founding Director of The Institute for Children’s Futures, and collected a special certificate. There were also plenty of photo opportunities with Manchester United mascot, Fred the Red, who was a special guest.
The children then performed a reading in their groups, which highlighted how far they’ve progressed in their oracy skills. The readings also helped to build their confidence and talk about their dreams for the future.
The ceremony was closed by a group sing-along of the schools song, followed by a tour of the children’s projects in an exhibition. Giving families and friends the chance to see how far their children’s work.
Following the success of this years ICF’s Saturday School, the faculty will continue to grow with more children looking to sign-up for next academic year.
