Each pair of young people from our different schools chose different experiences that they wanted to share with their peers, and spent some time reflecting on their cultural experiences and on the responsibility of spending the micro-grant.
Read on to hear from the two students from Co-op Academy Belle Vue inviting Contact Theatre to their school to create a 'play in a day' which ended in a performance for other students:
How did you spend your money?
We spent our money on a Drama Practitioner from Contact Theatre coming into school to organise a 'play in a day' with 20 Year 8s and 9s. We did it based on a dystopian love story where the antagonist killed the protagonists brother and fell in love with her but once she found out it was him, she killed him. There was also an evil dictator controlling everyone because the climate change had affected the city so badly. We mainly worked within the old drama studio and in the canteen to try and put together every scene and by the end of the day we were able to perform the whole show to a bunch of Year 7s in the auditorium.
Why did you choose to do that activity?
We chose a drama practitioner to come into school because we had drama removed from our curriculum back in early 2025 and we know a lot of students had been asking for it to come back so since we had that gap, we figured it be nice to bring it back for students who were especially passionate about drama and had been involved in the expressive arts department for quite a while.
What areas of creative leadership did your activity cover?
Our activity covered creativity, collaboration and communication.
What did you enjoy about the activity?
I enjoyed that we all was able to agree on a genre so quickly and that we all had a space to listen to each others ideas about what the play should be on. Everyone worked well together to put together a show that performed well in under 3 hours so it was nice seeing that shared passion and love for a subject we hadn’t visited for a while.
How has your experience as Creative Leaders helped you make decisions leading to this activity?
Working with the creative leaders sessions and group over the past 6 months really helped me to keep open ears and listen to what everyone wanted and try to manage that well. Especially with the other student from my school on the programme because we had disagreements on what to spend the grant on, I think the programme has helped with me communication and teamwork so that I could apply that to what we were deciding to spend the grant on.
“It was very fun and I like how we were allowed to choose how the play would go. It allowed me to be creative and improve my teamwork skills. I'm very grateful for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it and would love it if I had one again!” - Year 9 Pupil
“My review from the play is that it was really fun and amazing to have someone come in and create a play in one day and me personally I would want this stuff to happen more often.” - Year 9 Pupil
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