Forum news
Archive - January 2009
Thursday 22nd January, 2009
Sussex Forum News
By Admin
The Sussex Forum met for the first time this year on Sunday 18th January. It's our one year anniversary this month and those of us who were there at the beginning reflected on just how far we've come. We have had a few new members over the past couple of months, and we hope that Robyn, Ashleigh, Hannah, Richard and Tiana will continue to attend the forum.
In a bid to keep all our members busy and interested, there were a variety of activities to choose from. One group designed a new postcard for the Sussex forum, another small group thought about what new members to the forum need to know about and Joe worked on adding member profiles to the ELF website. Another group of seasoned members worked on developing a workshop to take into schools, around preparing young people for work experience. We will be taking this workshop into Ringmer Community College in Sussex in April, and forum members will be working beforehand with staff involved in organising work placements to create a valuable and informative workshop. We are also going to be talking to a work placement co-ordinator with East Sussex County Council to talk about the possibility of delivering a workshop to employers as well.
Next month, we will be meeting with employees at NCSoft in Brighton, to work on a new bid for further funding to develop our online interactive game. And coming soon........watch out for Kusi's appearance on Teacher's TV!
Monday 19th January, 2009
Innovation can make all the Difference
By Admin
This article was written by a Cumbria forum member to be included in the Futures supplement in the West Cumbrian Times and Star newspaper.
My name is Annie Hewgill and I am at college in Carlisle studying for my ‘A’ Levels. Although when I was at my secondary school, William Howard in Brampton, I was on the student forum, each year I would attempt to try and contribute something valid but never really succeeded. This was mainly due to my shy personality and lack of confidence that held me back from speaking out. This is why it was such a surprise when my head of 6th Form who chaired the meetings asked if I would be interested in being a member of EDGE Learner Forum.
The forum is an organisation of young people from all over the country from all sorts of backgrounds who are asked to work on different projects, contribute to debate and advise.
Its main aim is to promote and make young people aware of different ways of learning with a large focus on ‘different routes to success’. Straight away I had a very large doubt in my mind about becoming a member due to the daunting task of talking in front of people.
I met the two leaders of the Cumbria forum and somehow I was persuaded to take part. The forum has given me opportunities that are very useful for my future. In the past year I have been down to London three times to take part in different events.
My most recent trip was an event held by NESTA, the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. NESTA want to make the UK more innovative. There were two of us from the Cumbria Forum who went down to London and at the start of the day admittedly we didn’t have a clue what being innovative was. We soon learnt all about it and by the end of the day I felt inspired to be innovative and inform others about the word and how they too can be innovative.
Innovation is the idea of doing something different to how you would usually, its like breaking out of the box and doing something in your own unique way. It can be anything from something small to something huge.
Pretty much anything can be innovative as long as you have the confidence to do it; for example now for my notes at college I no longer write them on lined paper in biro pen, I now enjoy experimenting with materials, my latest innovative way of making notes is doing my revision cards with ink and quill pen on my sketch paper that usually I would have used in art. To some people my notes may look useless but to me they are much more helpful than my old exercise books.
The EDGE Learner Forum has opened many doors for me in the past year since I became a member, giving me the confidence to talk to and meet new people. It has also taught me that there are many of different ways of doing things and being innovative once in a while can make all the difference.
Friday 16th January, 2009
Meeting John Grogan MP
By CJ
CJ: So what have you been up to?
Max: Today I have been down to Selby with Edge Forum members Chris, Jenny, C.J & Kev. We went to the civic centre to meet up with the MP of Selby John Grogan.
CJ: What did you say to him?
Max: I said to him the reasons of Edge and how I got involved with it. I explained what I do and my experiences of education. We also talked about the increase of age in education from 16-18. We was talking about how I tried to got my voice heard when I was in education at Selby High but I never seemed to be able to get it across but now I’m with Edge I can actually do this and also hopefully I can change the education experience for other young people.
CJ: Was he a good person to meet with?
Max: Erm!! Yes he seemed really interested in what we are trying to do. He said he was interested in coming on Tuesday to the Youth Commission event in London to see what is going on which is a positive thing for the Edge forum team. He also said he had a couple of ideas which could involve the forum in the North Yorkshire area but he was going to go away and think about these ideas which also made us feel really good about the meeting.
CJ: What was the general feel about the whole meeting?
Max:The feeling was really positive. He listened to us and seemed to really take in what we were saying.
Friday 16th January, 2009
Genius in the ranks!
By CJ
CJ: I hear you’ve got some good news...?
Jenni: yeah, I do
CJ: well tell us then!
Jenni: Well I was really happy that I’d been accepted at all five of the uni’s I applied for, and then I got two more letters. Both Lancaster and Northumbria have offered me scholarships to study there.
CJ: That’s mint! What you studying?
Jenni: I’ll be studying International business, so I’ll get the opportunity to study or work abroad for a year while I’m there.
CJ: So, what are the scholarships for?
Jenni: Northumbria and Lancaster have offered a bursary for me to study at their university.
CJ: Why were you offered scholarships? Did you have to apply for them?
Jenni: No I didn’t apply so I was really surprised when I got the letters. I’ve been offered them as I achieved three A’s and a B last year (AS level) and am predicted the same grades this year. At Northumbria, these exceed the entry requirements and at Lancaster they meet them.
CJ: That’s mint!
Thursday 15th January, 2009
Marty's Mod School
By CJ
How did the opportunity come about?
I was on holiday in Isle of Wight and I just saw few cars outside a garage so I popped in. I just went over to one of the lads and asked questions like where did it first start and what sort of work do you do. They asked if I lived on the island and if I would like a job with them!
How was the course described to you?
Because I didn’t live locally they asked if I was interested in doing a taster course and just giving it a go and getting stuck in and show me what they did and do.
What did you learn?
We got a budget to just buy anything for the cars, to take it from stock and get it as close as a show car that we can.
I learnt engineering, project management and retail.
I took my interests and put it into the work itself, it wasn’t just like working under the hood it was working on all parts of the car.
What was the best moment?
I would have to say getting the budget to spend on the car and also just working round good friendly people and doing what I love best.
What did you get from doing the course?
I learnt so much from doing the course from simply buying parts to fitting them and now taking stuff I learnt from the course and now doing stuff to my own car and learning from my own mistakes.
What’s next?
I’m going back to the garage after having a talk again to the manager and going back to do more on the course and then after that I’m going to try get into college or move down to the island and get a job there.
Tuesday 13th January, 2009
Art despite the critics
By CJ
Mark, a senior Learner Forum Member from York had been put off studying art at school. Despite this he was committed to expressing his creativity and took to drawing in his own time, learning from a range of influences. His tattoo designs are awesome and inspired a brilliant collaboration with Inspired Youth\'s favourite artist, Jim Cereal of OTP. I caught up with Mark to ask him all about it ~
Why art?
It was a way that I could express myself using drawing e.g. I first started drawing Mickey mouse and tattoo’s and cars
What is your best memory of art at school?
Just been able to get creative with my ideas
What is your worst memory of art at school?
I was in my art lesson really enjoying what I was doing when the art teacher asked to see my coursework to see if I was doing ok with it then he told me my art work was a failure and ripped it up and put it in the bin. I dropped art at GCSE and ended up doing business studies.
Did you carry on with art?
I carried on with art in my own spare time and when I had some good ideas in my head so I thought I would get them down on paper before I forgot them. E.g. I did this at home etc
What was it like working with Jim Cereal?
It was great working with Jim because he is a great graffiti/stencil artist we thought it would be great to work with him on this project as we got his ideas with ours and came up with a really good stencil to be used on our edge learner forum t-shirt
What’s next?
I would like to take my art further into the future maybe study art at a college and gain a really good skill. I would say to other people who are interested in learning art to never give up their ambitions in life.
Wednesday 7th January, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
By CJ
Before we blast out of the blocks into a fully packed January programme lets take a quick look back at the end of last year...
December saw the York & North Yorkshire Forum join forces with the Doncaster & Birmingham Forums to welcome special guests Gravity Control, Axon Audio, Jim Cereal otp. and Karen Spenceley.
Check out a selection of the photos here: Xmas Mash-Up Photos
or
Check out the full album @ Akoz's website: www.scottakoz.com
If there are any that you really like, let me know and I'll send you a high res copy.
Peace
CJ