Students at Greenfield Community College have been participating in an exciting project that explores ways to express opinions and ideas with confidence.
‘Your Voice, Your Say’ has been developed by Greenfield Arts in partnership with The Forge, working with drama practitioner Alex Elliott. Through creative learning, the students have been encouraged to develop their communication and debating skills and be inspired to ‘make a difference’.
This certainly was evident at their recent celebration event as they showcased their new-found voices on film. Students produced a collaborative piece of poetry entitled ‘The Shildon Cantata’ engaging the audience in a sense of place and identity. The young people had also prepared a question and answer session to encourage discussion and debate, displaying confidence and communication skills.
The evening was a great success attracting parents, staff and members of the local community, including the Mayor of Shildon. The event was held at Greenfield’s Shildon site and was a testament to the hard work and creativity achieved by the students. A big thank you to The Forge, and well done to all involved. The project was funded by IWill and Country Durham Community Federation to support young people to have a voice and develop an interest in social action.
Going forward the group want to open up further debate with staff and students at the school and are already organising this by showing the film school-wide, developing ideas for the next staff training conference and working towards their contribution to our student voice conference in July.
Photo from left to right: Mayor of Shildon Luan Deakin, David Priestley, Executive Headteacher Greenfield Community College, Charlie, Ebony, Darren, Theatre Practitioner Alex Elliott, writer Paul Summers, Bev Briggs The Forge
