Sherpa Kids - an international franchisor that runs before and after-school care clubs and holidays activities for primary school-aged children – has been awarded a contract at a unique primary school that is being built in Cambridge.

Sherpa Kids will run the after-school clubs at the University of Cambridge Primary School – which will be the first primary-level university training school in England and will deliver teaching, teacher-training and educational research. T

he school, which is due to open in September 2015, is being built as part of the North West Cambridge Development, which will see the creation of a new district and extension to the city of Cambridge. Places at the primary school will be offered initially at Reception and Key Stage One only. However, eventually, there will be three forms of entry, for children aged four to 11, with an overall enrolment of 630 children by 2021-22, and a 78-place nursery.

Sherpa Kids, which currently has more than 100 franchises worldwide, in locations including Australia, Canada, Ireland and South Africa, is expanding across the UK, where it has recently launched new clubs in two north London schools. It offers safe, structured, engaging, fun, activity-based programmes that are tailored to fit in with the individual requirements of schools and their curriculums, while adhering to early learning frameworks.

Since Sherpa Kids’ clubs are run on a franchise basis, they contribute to economic and employment prospects locally as all decision-making is done by franchise owners who are encouraged to source products locally too. James Biddulph, who has been appointed headteacher of University of Cambridge Primary School, said: “We are delighted to announce that Sherpa Kids has been awarded the contract to provide our after-school childcare provision. They are very passionate about responding to the needs of our children and have great credentials.

“We were also very impressed by the fact that Sherpa Kids will enable us to play a key role in developing an inspiring after school curriculum that is tailored to our total community needs.” Vicki Prout, Co-Director of Sherpa Kids International, said: “We are very excited to have been chosen to provide after-school care clubs at the new University of Cambridge Primary School. “Working with individual schools to develop bespoke programmes that fulfil their needs is a core part of our offering.

We look forward to helping the University of Cambridge Primary School create and deliver a programme that befits its unique status and offers real value to the children, and the wider community, including pupils’ families, staff and academics.”