A spring update from our Education team!
Here’s the latest news updating you on what’s happened recently and what’s coming up in our Education department…
#TalkAwayDontWalkAway
February has seen the launch of our #TalkAwayDontWalkAway Mental Health Project 2024. The Education team is travelling all around the county to provide workshops to schools and colleges across Herefordshire. Using drama, practical exercises and games, young people explore what mental health is. They also look at ways that they can look after their mental health and promote positive wellbeing. This year, we are working with over 20 schools and all of which are invited to perform at our Sharing Days in May.
Starting the conversation surrounding Mental Health with young people at an early age is a vital step in preventing mental health problems from developing later in life. An important part of the project is working with the schools and teachers to feel confident in supporting their young people in regards to mental health and wellbeing. Already we have seen the positive impact this project has had, with one teacher commenting ‘we are using this project to engage with students that overwise may struggle with communicating in a classroom setting and they are really excited about becoming wellbeing warriors’
The Sharing Days coming up in May are a celebration of everything that has been achieved through the project and a positive reflection on why looking after our Mental Health is so important.
Youth Theatre Socials
Thanks to the fantastic hard work of our youth board we are able to put on more and more youth theatre socials! Youth theatre socials give our youth theatre members the chance to socialise outside of our normal youth theatre sessions and meet members from other groups, including our community venues. We always aim to create friendly and inclusive environments in our youth theatre and our socials are a real help in making that happen. We recently went to see The Importance of Being… Ernest?, a hilarious improvised show that was unlike anything we’d seen before! And as well as trips to watch productions at The Courtyard we’ve been organising more youth theatre parties, giving our members more of a chance to chat and get to know each other. Back in December we had a Christmas party, where games were played and we turned the studio into a cinema for a screening of The Grinch. It was one of the best attended socials we’ve ever had! We’ve also got coming up a youth theatre disco, and a social aimed just at our senior youth theatre members from across the county, allowing our community members to meet young people their own age in different areas.
Youth Theatre eco pledges
We’ve been hard at work in our recent Youth Board meetings organising socials and fundraising activities. But at our latest Youth Board meeting we spent some time writing our own Youth Board eco pledges! Each of our youth board members thought about how their role could make changes and commitments that would support The Courtyard’s sustainability effort. This included making sure that all materials used by the Youth Board can be reused or recycled and encouraging Youth Theatre members to share lifts to The Courtyard. We’ll be implementing these over the coming months so stay tuned!
