Children's University Swinburne
Children aged 7 to 18 can try new experiences, develop new interests and acquire new skills, through self-directed learning opportunities.
The Children’s University Swinburne is an program that celebrates and encourages child-led learning beyond the classroom.
By partnering with Learning Destinations and schools, we are able to offer a diverse range of fun, high-quality educational experiences to our 7- to 14-year-old members to engage with. Achievements are recorded and milestones celebrated at an annual graduation ceremony!
All Children’s University Swinburne members are issued a Passport in which students collect stamps from different Learning Destinations they have visited and record their learning or volunteering activities. Once members have accumulated a minimum of 30 hours of learning, they will graduate just like grown-ups do!
As the only university in Victoria offering the Children's Univeristy program, we are keen to partner with more schools to bring this exciting program to your school community. So whether you are a teacher, a student or a Learning Destination, we would love for you to get involved!
Children's University Swinburne members will participate in a graduation ceremony after completing a minimum of 30 hours self-motivated extracurricular learning.
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The Children’s University is a great program, which Swinburne has picked up that offers a lot of children from schools where
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the idea of a university is not necessarily something familiar, their parents might not have gone to university.
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And we want to show them that a university is a place where they belong.
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We started with just one school, and now both the primary and secondary, and it's very complimentary because
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the older children can actually be assisting the younger learners from that school.
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I wanted to try something new, so I decided to join it.
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You have to do like activities on science and all different kinds of things.
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She’s doing a lot of stuff she probably wouldn't have done before.
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I think she’s a little bit more confident than she used to be. I think it’s been really good for the kids.
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Doing it through school has made it a lot easier as well.
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We’re a very small school. The opportunities perhaps are not always there.
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This gives them a little bit of incentive. Push away those boundaries.
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We've always wanted her to learn Tongan. So it helped motivate her, because she got hours for it.
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We would take it to every activity we did and after the activity we'd get a stamp.
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We knew she could do a language, but it has normally been set up through a traditional learning institution,
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and so we worked with them about how we could do it through just home.
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To learn my language, because when my family visit from the island they can communicate.
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So I'm happy to teach them.
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This is such a Swinburne thing to do. We are bringing together everyone in the community,
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no matter their background, their advantage or otherwise.
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Asking questions, following their curiosity and over tens of hours they have followed
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that curiosity to get answers about the world around, in a range of fields.
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Maybe ten years from now, I’ll see them in my class and we can discover those answers together.
Get involved
Making the decision to team with Children’s University Swinburne is a step toward developing self-motivated, engaged learners at your school. Our program provides an avenue for your students to not only gain a new perspective on their learning, but also to take control of it.
Children’s University Swinburne encourages 8-14 year old students to aspire to new heights, try out new activities, discover new passions, visit new places and above all, have fun whilst learning! The senior secondary program focuses on raising aspirations for higher learning, increasing academic prepardness and attainment, building transferable skills for study and increasing student networks and sense of belonging.
If your school is interested in joining our program, a Children's University Swinburne Coordinator will be appointed to launch the program at your school and train one of your staff as an in-house coordinator.
Your coordinator will oversee the running of the program within the school, manage the distribution and maintenance of passports, and be the liaison with Children's University Swinburne staff.
Children's University Swinburne will provide training in all areas as part of the enrolment package and provide support when needed. Want to know more? Contact us at ChildrensUniversity@swinburne.edu.au.
Children’s University Swinburne is a place to try new things, make new friends with similar interests, develop your leadership skills, aspire to new heights and celebrate and be rewarded for your learning achievements.
We can provide you with fun extracurricular activities that take place at your school, online and in the wider community. The best part is you get to choose what activities you want to complete and when you want to complete them. You can collect your learning hours before school, at lunch time, after school and in the school holidays.
Upon joining Children’s University Swinburne, you will receive a Passport to Learning that you take with you on your learning journey! By taking your passport to Learning Destinations, you can collect hours as you participate in amazing activities. Your goal is to accrue a minimum of 30 hours self-motivated extracurricular learning. It is at this point that you will be eligible to graduate at a real graduation ceremony at our Swinburne campus!
If you want your school to get involved with Children’s University Swinburne, contact us and we will send your school some information.
Do you provide educational activities for children?
Expand your community profile by collaborating with Children's University Swinburne as a Learning Destination.
Becoming a Learning Destination will open opportunities for you to engage students and promote the educational opportunities you have available to schools and the broader community.
Want to learn more?
Find out more about Children's University Swinburne by emailing ChildrensUniversity@swinburne.edu.au.