04 November 2022

This week’s blog is to speak about the incredible things that have happened over the past few months at RPT, not just in the youth section but across our services.

This year I have had the pleasure of organising multiple trips and activities for the young people alongside my amazing team members, who have made the process so much easier with their great ideas and organisation.

A lot of the activities were planned by the young people we work alongside as Forums took place within youth sessions and through their feedback forms. They asked, we delivered!

We have organised everything from residential trips to ice skating and beach days in the rain 😊 The young people have thoroughly enjoyed it. Our annual Finding Rhythms music project was also a huge success once again.

I’m so happy to be part of a great team that is focused on providing the best service for the young people and families from our local North Kensington community and I hope you enjoy reading about everything we have been up to!

Ruddy Adu-Sarfo 

Youth Team Coordinator 

STOP PRESS! THIS JUST IN…

Young people from RPT were on BBC One on Wednesday when they attended the official launch of the new Technicians Gallery at the Science Museum in London. They have been part of a youth advisory panel for the gallery’s creation for over a year, providing feedback to reflect the views of people aged 11 to 16 – and this was their chance to see the new gallery and share their thoughts with the world!

Youth Worker Munera Sheikh-Mao, who attended the event with Ruddy Adu-Sarfo, both agreed: “It has been a great experience for our young people, full of networking, teamwork, confidence building and an opportunity to be a part of something that will impact their community and peers.”

This is the fourth year that Finding Rhythms has worked with RPT, providing a vital creative musical outlet for the young people who access our wider services at youth club.

The aim of the project was to support the young people (seven boys and three girls) as they came together to create an album of original music, improving confidence and soft skills. It also gave them an opportunity to be creative and expressive. In the past, people have spoken about poignant issues such as feminism, immigration, the impact of Covid on communities, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the impact of the Grenfell tragedy. This was their chance to express some of their thoughts and feelings through composing their own music.

At the end of the project, we asked the young people how they had found it. Their feedback evidenced the quality of the sessions and how the musical process had enabled them to attain skills which they valued and achieve their creative goals.

• 100 per cent of participants said their overall wellbeing had improved
• 90 per cent said they had learned new skills
• 90 per cent said they had built new friendships

In their own words:

“Compared to last time, I have definitely gained more confidence in singing in front of others who have been supportive of my music, and the staff also really helped me initiate ideas for my songs.”

“It has helped me with confidence with recording with others. The staff are professional and engaging with me and others and are like mentors.”

So, what music did they create? Listen to it here!

Shashi Ioannides

Operations Manager, RPT

Oakerwood Residential Trip

A campfire, paintballing, quad biking, laser clay pigeon shooting, becoming Guardian Angels…our residential trip to Oakerwood with the young people was definitely a highlight of the summer which they thoroughly enjoyed!

Sitting by an open campfire was a brand-new experience for most people in the group. We all watched and listened to its crackling, chatting and playing word games, and the young people were completely captivated. They all said the campfire was the highlight of the trip for them and something they will remember fondly for a long time to come. (Plus, it was good to see them spending way less time looking at their phones!)

We also had a “Guardian Angel” game, organised by Senior Youth Worker Michael. Each person was assigned another person to be their Guardian Angel, but the names were kept secret. Each Angel would then carry out acts of kindness, picked out of a hat every morning, towards this person every day. These included complimenting the person five times, talking to them to find out what sort of things they liked to do or finding an opportunity to help them with something. On the last night, around the campfire, everyone guessed who they thought their Guardian Angels were – and those who had managed to remain undetected while carrying out their kindnesses received a prize!

So what did the young people think? Well, 100% of them said they had learned new skills as a result of the project and that their overall wellbeing had improved, while 80% said they had built new friendships.

And in their own words…

“I was contemplating not coming but am very happy I came. Staff constantly checked how I was feeling.”

“I felt very comfortable and involved.”

“The new skills I learned were to try new things and be more resilient.”

We’ll call that a success!

Shashi Ioannides

Operations Manager, RPT

Summer Holidays at Avondale

What would be a typical day at our summer play centre? For the 215 children aged 5 to 14 who joined us at our venue, Avondale School?

Well, first we’d make sure that all children who arrived before 10.30am had a healthy meal to set them up for the day. So we laid out some choices for them: cereal, toast, fruit croissants, strawberries and juice. After that, the daily programme began. Games, sports, construction activities, computer games, table tennis, Unihoc (a kind of indoor version of hockey), rounders, cricket, tennis, crafts, pottery, dance, junk box modelling, trampolining at the RPT building and more. We also had information available from the local NHS health team.

We’re hugely grateful to the Holidays Activity Fund that we received through community partnership organisation Young K&C. Thanks to that, we could also provide a cooked lunch, fully prepared on-site (catered by Lunchtime Co). Children also got an afternoon snack before they left for the day. Thanks to the funding, many children could even join the holiday club free of charge, referred by schools or the local authority. Five Ukrainian children who were living with local families also joined us and we were glad to welcome them.

We even won first prize in the local Nursery Carnival! In keeping with the theme of Mexico, we made a small float with hats, flags and shakers, and received a trophy from the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea. The children had a great day and all came home wearing sombreros!

Then there was our trip to Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, funded by the RPT Foundation, plus visits to local parks and two sessions at the Holland Park Ecology Centre, where we took part in a mini “beast hunt” and wild weaving. There were dance and steel band workshops and at the end, a small concert was held for children to celebrate and showcase their new skills.

In addition, 89 children took bike riding lessons with Cycle Confident. Now, 14 of them learned to ride confidently through the programme and 13 of them cycled from Avondale to Hyde Park for a picnic.

Then at the end of each week, the Play Ambassadors presented the Friday Awards to the children to recognise their achievements for the week. After that, celebration time! We’d have a party with games, activities and wet play from children’s entertainers Sharky and George.

So that was our summer play centre! And we give huge thanks to our funders, supporters, Avondale School, RPT volunteers and P3 Play Workers, for making it a success once again. And it was a success – 91% of children rated it 😊, 97% said they would return and 86% said they enjoyed the food.

We know what’s important!

Colin Simmons

Consultant, RPT

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We’re focusing on our three core priorities of building skills, supporting relationships and promoting wellbeing across our services. We’ve set up new ways of continuously evaluating what we do, so we can learn from the young people and adapt our programmes based on their feedback.

This autumn, one particular focus is on supporting them with building employment skills and opportunities and promoting wellbeing. We’re now providing qualifications from the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance across our services. We’ve also launched a very successful and busy Stay and Play for families and preschool children.

There’s also the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, so we’re looking to open Warm Spaces. This will see our building opened to the community two days a week in the daytime for hot food, tea and coffee, a chat and also advice and support. Hearts need warming too, after all. We’ll also be introducing hot food every night of the week at all our youth sessions.

These are difficult times and there are more to come, but we’ll be there for the young people.

Sophie FitzHugh
Head of Services