Young people rock at The School of Rock!!
As part of BELS’ Creating Positive Futures programme, we took fifteen of our young people to The School of Rock. This is one of a range of positive activities designed to engage young people who are not in education employment or training (NEET) and progress them into employment.
This event was aimed at engaging young pupils in secondary school in music while encouraging young people supported by BELS to contribute to an event run by young people. The objective was to build confidence and nurture community spirit among the BELS’ group as well as among the young pupils.
Well, what a day we had! The event was held at the Thomas Tallis School in Blackheath and, as we arrived with 15 hesitant young people, we entered the school hall which had been decked out with amps, lights, and a stage full of instruments and mikes! As soon as the first band appeared (a group of very confident and eager 14/15 year olds) and the lights dimmed, the music blared and we hit the dance floor!
After 3 hours of rocking out to some classics by ACDC, The Beatles and Stevie Wonder, we were exhausted and we could not get the youngsters off the dance floor! At first, everyone seemed a little nervous and self-conscious but this soon disappeared and a fantastic time was had by all! All our young people left with smiles of their faces, feeling confident, positive and energised! This was a great opportunity to support local initiatives in education and also provide a great positive day out for our young people.
Over the school holidays, some pupils who may have become disengaged socially or academically within lower academic years attended music workshops with real musicians and had the opportunity to learn instruments, play music and generally get involved in something positive! These workshops over the half-term involved young people getting into small groups and practising a number of songs to play live to an audience. So on the 14th of April, we went to the live performances, encouraged our young people to show support for such a great cause and see what all the fuss was about….
14th Apr 2011
