Weekly Update – 04/02/2020
It was really great to see signs of young people engaging in our sessions growing in their confidence and self-esteem over the past week, as well as new young people coming to access our provision. This week’s highlights included:
- Head Start – food, sleep and mood were the focus themes of sessions at Willowcroft and All Saint’s Primary Schools, to enhance the young people’s awareness of the relationships between each. As with the session’s held on the topic for previous groups, Justina and Charlotte whipped up a lovely blend of mars bars, energy drinks and other unhealthy ingredients to mimic the concoction foods such as these come to create when consumed! The young people then loved the healthier Innocent smoothies they were treated to instead, to demonstrate how good healthy alternatives can make you feel as well as taste.
- Dinner and Debate and Young Men’s – this week saw young people have creative, cooking sessions making pitta bread pizzas! Dinner and Debate took a Dragon’s Den style format, with the young people designing the branding and packaging of their pizzas, which they then pitched to the group – the winning creation to be announced at this week’s session! All thoroughly enjoyed both the making and eating and staff were impressed by the enthusiasm, creative ideas and presentation skills demonstrated. It was also brilliant to welcome more young people who have been engaging in our Head Start sessions at Primary Schools.
- What’s Up – many young people came along for another great session of games, focused on developing critical thinking and team work skills.
- Friday Fitness and Fun –Friday evenings are now taking the format of a fitness focused session, followed by an open session for young people – offering an alternative location to the town centre where they can come and socialise positively with their peers. This Friday proved a great success, many coming along and getting involved in some pad fitness training with great enthusiasm and appreciating the welcoming space to spend their time in for the evening. Carrying out detached prior and following the session also worked well for spreading the word and then checking all had headed elsewhere safely afterwards.
- Detached and Outreach – detached and outreach sessions over the week proved as important as ever for conversations held with young people around the town. Regular interactions ensure young people remain aware of our additional provision available to them and continue to further the positive relationships established with each to build their confidence in approaching us for support. Following our efforts to also encourage pro-social behaviour, it was also brilliant to see a number of young people acting very positively in the town centre.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, queries or ideas for us over the coming week, including if you may be interested in signing up to receive email reminders for the Weekly Update and/or our monthly newsletter.
Another notice to highlight is that VOXY (Voice of Oxfordshire’s Youth) and The Children’s Trust are looking for feedback from all children and young people in Oxfordshire about how supported they feel by the services they use. First shared in January 2019, this follow up survey will be important for observing any change in how supported children and young people feel one year on, so there’s great worth in spreading the word. Head here for more information and the survey link.
Other than that, we hope the first week of February treats you all well and thank you as ever for your support.
Kind regards,
The TRAIN Team