Golden Moment for Children’s University participants

York St John University is taking part in the Children’s University scheme and this week invited a group of local schoolchildren on campus.

Pupils from Headlands Primary School in York came into the University on Wednesday afternoon to complete their ‘Health Humans’ module. This has involved looking at food groups, healthy eating, the skeleton (bones and muscles) and the function of the heart and lungs.

Six York St John students, from the Health & Life Science and Education & Theology faculties, have been volunteering on the module since December which has involved them delivering a series of sessions to a class of Year 5 and 6 pupils, both within their school and at the University.

The final session, termed the Golden Moment, brought all this learning together as the children found out how much exercise they had to do to burn off the calories of a particular sweet or chocolate bar using skipping, step, hula hoops, rowing machines and bikes.

Dr Georgia Allen, Sport Lecturer at York St John University worked with the children and students through the afternoon in the Physiology Labs.

She said: “For the Golden Moment our students organised and facilitated an excellent educational, interactive and fun afternoon at the University. It was clear that our students engaged very well with the children throughout the project and the children appeared to thoroughly enjoy their time at York St John.”

The children also had a tour around campus and found out about what it was like to study at university.

Suzanne Dickinson, Employability Projects Co-ordinator at York St John, said: “As an added bonus they got to see the smoothie bike that was part of Healthy Body Image Week and even persuaded their class teacher to have a go! All fitting in very nicely with the Healthy Human theme of the module.”

Suzanne, who organised the Children’s University Module with colleagues in the Careers and Employability team, worked with the students involved. She said: “They have all worked really hard to produce the lesson plans and make the Golden Moment a great experience for the children.

“This is the first year the module has run at York St John University and we are happy to announce it will run again next year, hopefully alongside a new Arts module.”

The Children’s University is a national scheme which aims to inspire children through extra-curricular and out-of-school activities. York Children’s University is led by York Cares and involves a range of institutions and attractions to offer children opportunities to link real life with learning.