South Yorkshire CU Acorn Fund

Children’s University (CU) motivates children and young people from the age of 5 to try new learning experiences in and outside of school; at breakfast, lunchtime and after school clubs and in their own time, in the local library, museum, sports club or exploring learning activities further afield.  

Culminating in an inspirational graduation ceremony, this learning adventure gives children and young people the opportunity to enrich their childhoods, nurture a lifelong love of learning, unlock their skills and talents and develop their aspirations and confidence, regardless of their backgrounds.  

South Yorkshire Children’s University is funded by The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University and brings together existing CU centres in Doncaster and Sheffield and newly formed CU centres in Rotherham and Barnsley. Working collaboratively enables these four CU centres to share best practice, develop new and innovative opportunities for schools, and support children and families to engage in high quality extra-curricular learning in their local area and beyond.

The South Yorkshire CU Acorn Fund is awarded exclusively to children and young people from Children’s University schools and empowers them to make decisions about the extra-curricular activities they want to see and take part in at their school.  The idea is that, like an acorn grows into an oak tree, pupils can use a small amount of money from the Acorn Fund to grow their own club or activity.

The application process is fully pupil-led and a full application pack with guidance is provided. To be eligible to receive funding, pupils must provide evidence that they have surveyed need and consulted with others in schools. They are asked to submit a full spending plan which shows value for money and are asked to consider longer term sustainability and how they will continue their activity/club beyond the funding provided. They also need to provide details on how they will evaluate and celebrate the success of their club/activity moving forward.

Children and young people are encouraged to develop their essential skills by pulling together a creative application for an activity/club that is high quality, well-planned and successful. They are also encouraged to further reflect and demonstrate how their proposed activity/club will support learning and help pupils develop these skills, and are guided to reflect on their own essential skills and how they have developed these.