Community News

Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP officially opens KC Learning Zone

City centre learning base opens its doors

Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP prepares to unveil the KC Learning Zone with Kevin Walsh and John Buttrick

A tired training room that has been transformed into a bespoke classroom for Hull Children’s University (HCU) has today been officially opened by the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP.

Mr Johnson joined pupils from Griffin Primary School and The Green Way Primary School to unveil the KC Learning Zone, which is based at KC’s Carr Lane offices.

The donation of the KC Learning Zone is just the latest commitment from KC to educational charity HCU. As one of KC in the Community’s three major partnerships, KC has also provided funding for a full-time HCU employee and designed a bespoke communications module to enhance the HCU programme. In addition, KC employees act as mentors to help deliver the HCU programme.

The Learning Zone will provide HCU with the opportunity to bring many of the young people on its programme into the centre of Hull for the very first time.

John Buttrick, HCU Founder and Director, said: “Alan has been a supporter of HCU for a number of years and I couldn’t think of anyone better to open the HCU KC Learning Zone. The young people taking part in the KC Ambassadors for Hull module were delighted to be able to share their learning experiences with him and be part of a historic moment for HCU.

“KC’s continued support is enabling us to reach more children, develop our programme of modules and for the first time in our history, have a city centre base that is designed around the needs of our young people. I can’t thank Kevin and the entire KC team enough for their effort and enthusiasm.”

The Learning Zone is kitted out with state of the art PCs and presentation equipment and is large enough to accommodate a whole class of children. The space will not only be used to deliver the KC module, but provides a space for the HCU team to work directly with teachers and provide training.

Kevin Walsh, KC Chief Executive said: “The work that Hull Children’s University does to inspire and engage young people is vital in raising the learning and personal aspirations of our region’s next generation. KC is incredibly proud to be working with the Hull Children’s University, enabling many more children to benefit from this inspirational programme.”

Kevin continues: “We’ve had a fantastic response from across KC with people wanting to get involved in both mentoring and working behind the scenes to ensure the dedicated KC Hull Children’s University Learning Zone meets the needs of the young people. We are very excited about the partnership.”

The project would not have been possible without the time, expertise and generosity of the KC Learning Zone team and a number of other local suppliers who gave their work to the project at a reduced rate.