The story so far

The Children's University in the United Kingdom began as a Saturday school project in Birmingham in the early 1990s. It was instigated by Professor Sir Tim Brighouse and Sir David Winkley, then Chief Education Officer and Headteacher, and supported by the King Edward Foundation. During the next decade, a dozen or so local Children's University centres were started across England, Wales and Scotland, offering a variety of out-of-school-hours learning experiences to children.

In December 2006, the CU Trust was formed and, with the financial support of the Department for Education (formerly the Department for Children, Schools and Families) and the Sutton Trust, established the national Children's University.

Other funding partners have included JP Morgan, Nationwide, Fidelity Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and Charles Dunstone Charitable Trust. The Chief Executive, Ger Graus, was appointed in April 2007 and set up the national office in Manchester. The CU Trust's Chair is Dr Sandy Bradbrook.

During 2011, the Children's University worked across 70 local CU centres in England with 100,000+ children aged 7 to 14, each in possession of their own Passport To Learning. This resulted in more than 1,350,000 hours of high quality learning either side of the school day, at weekends and during school holidays. By the end of the year in England there was a waiting list of 30 local CU centres designate. There is also a national Children's University presence in the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales involving 20,000+ children for in excess of 275,000 hours of learning. Through its head office in Germany, the national Children's University includes Service Children's Education schools across the world: Belgium, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Italy, The Netherlands and Turkey. 

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