Edge Forum

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

Sunday 14th December, 2008

Latest News from London

By Admin

It's that time of year again. Chestnuts roasting, sleighbells jingling...and a stocking crammed full of ELF goodness. Keep your eyes on the mince pies, and let us take you through a whirlwind tour of what's been keeping us busy into the festive season.

NESTA Workshop- Saturday 8th November

On Saturday 8th November a handful of forum members convened at NESTA to discuss youth innovation and how to make it more widespread. To get our imaginations warmed up, we kicked off by picking images and using them to explain our own understanding of what innovation is. Following on from this, a 'Room 101' task helped us to identify the barriers to achieving innovation, before a 'Dragons Den' inspired activity challenged members to design projects to harness and develop young people's innovative talents.

 The conference sparked some impressive brainwaves for how the Forum could work with NESTA to create an innovation explosion among the UK’s youth. We hope to be working closely with NESTA to realise this goal, so please get in touch if you’d like to be involved in the next workshop!

Despite its lack of mouth, the red box was proving its freestyle credentials.

Chain Reaction- Saturday 17th November

 OK people, we need you to cast your minds back...way back into the mists of time...You may remember that forum representatives (Huda and Nick) were invited to join a discussion entitled ‘Educating for Social Change’ at the Chain Reaction conference on 17th November.

We didn't meet Richard Branson in the end, but it was worth our while nonetheless. Using the Forum as a point of reference, we outlined methods for improving conventional attitudes to education and presented the ELF’s own unique stance on Learner Voice. Provoking debate among the attendees and meeting some like-minded people, all in all Chain reaction was another successful outing!

As Nick entered the 46th minute of his rant, Huda realised she has lost the will to live.

The Nerve: Alive and Kicking- Friday 28th November

 After a long build up we’re excited to announce a big breakthrough with The Nerve magazine. On Friday 28th November a crack team (Jamie, Rebecca, Simon, Alev, Rose, Ru) was assembled for a presentation to Sinem, an expert in all things magazine related. This was a rehearsal before we pitch for actual sponsorship, to pinpoint how strong our chances are to launch The Nerve. And the conclusion was...(drumroll please)... much stronger than we thought! Sinem was enthused by the development of the magazine over recent months, and believes that with a few adjustments we should be ready to take on the top dogs. If all goes to plan 2009 should be the year of The Nerve.

A lot of members have been involved with the magazine, so thanks to everyone who’s helped out so far. We’re still recruiting writers for the project; if you’d like to be part of this drop us a line.

 DCSF

 On 11th December members from the London (Michael, Damien) and York (David, Emma) forums met Fiona Jordan and Chris Percey from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in their colourful offices in Westminster. We discussed ways to move towards learner-led diploma reviews, one of the big campaigns we have lined up for next year. We're hoping forum members can work alongside other young people to gage how successful the first wave of diplomas has been, drawing on individual experiences to offer a unique insight. Fiona and Chris felt the forum's approach could be very worthwhile, and we hope to be working closely with the DCSF next year.

 David didn't understand what was so funny until the photo was developed (on a serious note, sorry for cutting you out!).

And another thing...

A couple more updates: For those of you that didn’t have the chance to catch up with ex-forum member Matthew Ahmet at the National event, he’s just finished touring with his Shaolin brothers, who were performing their acclaimed show ‘Shaolin: Wheel of Life’. Many thanks to Matthew for his awesome contribution to the National Event, and we hope to see you again soon.

Finally we’d like to give a big shout out to Michael, who has had his application for Labour councillor for Hackney accepted: congratulations! Next stop: 10 Downing Street!

All that remains is to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!!