North East Combined Authority and Discover! Creative Careers organised a series of ‘Career Carousel’s’ across the North East, to inspire children to explore creative careers and show them how the things they love to do can translate into a career. In Northumberland, students were invited to Queen’s Hall Arts Centre to enjoy an engaging, hands-on day with professional creatives, gaining real insight into what a day in their career is really like. 

Workshops 

Northumberland schools were invited to bring groups of Year 9 pupils to participate in three hands on workshops with creative professionals. Workshops included a screen printing workshop with Creative Producer and Multimedia Participatory Artist, Emma Tominey, an introduction to scenic arts and prop-making with Backstage Builders CIC, an interactive dance workshop with  dancer and choreographer, Kristin Kelly Abbott and an introduction to theatre in unusual places, with Novo Theatres.

Some groups were able to try out the light and sound equipment with Queen’s Hall technicians, as well as attending an introduction to gallery curation, and a demonstration of stage and special effects makeup by Over the Winks.

The Panel

At the end of the workshops, pupils attended a panel discussions with Creative Director of Queen’s Hall, Katy Taylor, Helen Driver, curriculum lead of Art at Newcastle College, Steve Gilroy from the School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries at Northumbria University and Trish Mayes, from Backstage Builders CIC.  The panel was led by playwright  Garry Lyons, and gave students the opportunity to ask questions about different pathways into the arts and creative industries, such as apprenticeships, college courses, university degrees, or more unconventional routes into the sector. 

The onsite re-imagined Great Hall and museum  at Ad Gefrin gives students an immersive experience into life at the 7th century Summer palace of the Kings and Queens of Northumbria, with artefacts from national collections such as The British Museum. Schools are able to take a trip to the archaeological site at Yeavering to stand on the hillside where the royal settlement was and walk where the Kings and Queens had stepped before

Ad Gefrin can tailor school visits and worksheets to link with the curriculum . They can also offer Ad Gefrin ‘on the road’, when a staff member (or even an Anglo Saxon) will come to school bringing replica artifacts for an interactive session. Ad Gefrin are currently working on loans boxes for schools to hire to deliver content in class.

The idea behind Ad Gefrin’s education programme is to bring an interactive/immersive experience to students, resulting in better engagement and understanding of a largely untold period of our past. This sits between the Roman and Viking eras, but during a time when Northumbria was pre-eminent in the world for its power and culture.

People travelled from North Africa, Europe, and Scandinavia to be at the court of King Edwin and King Oswald and to witness the first conversions of the Northumbrians to Christianity. This was at the cusp of moving from oral tradition to the written tradition so the perfect context for exploring language as well as history and geography.

The Inspiration

As part of the leadership qualification the group were assigned the task to research potential locations for a proposed trip with the Inspire Grant funding. The group initially decided to do a consultation exercise and created a questionnaire which was put to the wider 6th form. A full group consultation session was then held to identify numbers of students who were interested in going on the residential. The leaders also consulted with the wider group to identify 4 possible locations to further research potential Itineraries
and source costings.

Costing and programme examples were sourced from a number of school trip organisers by the group. All costs were way beyond our initial estimate and not viable without a significant student financial contribution. London was the most popular choice but transport, accommodation costs were very
expensive and risk management was a concern from the group and other young people. There was also a general feeling of London being a dangerous and unsafe location.

The leaders then consulted with the wider student group and 4 European destinations were identified: Dublin, Amsterdam Paris and Prague. Dublin flights were very cheap but group accommodation proved very expensive. Paris and Prague were also costed by the group but flight times and accommodation proved to be very expensive and logistically challenging. By far the best value for money option was with DFDS,  the ferry provider, who offered a Newcastle – Amsterdam trip. The students initially liaised with the events team via email to establish if a group deal could be done. The ferry option was felt to be a very safe trip, low risk and most food and costs included. The students secured a great deal within budget and helped to confirm the 45 places required to run the trip. Staff secured the booking and arranged the deposit payment.

Students also developed the itinerary for the day in Amsterdam which was shared with parents. The leadership group were sharing the learning with the wider group as more information became available with support from the staff team.

Students fed back to the staff team that getting people to commit to the trip was very challenging for fear of the unknown, students had lots of questions but young leaders did a great job of planning and liaising with other students to help get the booking secured.